Ancient solar systems
The white dwarfs were analysed using the X-Shooter spectroscopic instrument on the Very Large Telescope in Chile. It can record the entire spectrum of a celestial object in one shot
F or nine years, the Gaia spacecraft has been hard at work creating a highly detailed 3D map of the Milky Way. It was launched with the aim of surveying more than one per cent of the galaxy’s 100 billion stars. It has made many crucial discoveries, helping scientists better understand how the galaxy was formed and how it’s changed over time. Although there’s still four years to go, the mission has already found strong non-radial tsunami-like starquakes in thousands of stars as well as quasars, exoplanets and even the first supernova outside of the Milky Way. But now we can add another discovery – one which is perplexing scientists. Astronomers have spotted a white dwarf star that appears to be about 10 billion years old, and further studies point to a Solar System that was very different to any previously found.
“This star was identified as a highconfidence white dwarf candidate in a large catalogue of stars identified by Gaia,” explains Abbigail Elms, lead author of the study. “It was noticed that
