Evidence for water found in extrasolar asteroid debris
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.027413
Nature : A water-rich asteroid or minor planet may have once orbited GD 61, a white-dwarf remnant of a star that was more massive than the Sun. Jay Farihi of the University of Cambridge in the UK and colleagues used a UV spectrometer installed on the Hubble Space Telescope to study the rocky debris orbiting GD 61. The debris is most likely the remains of a small celestial body that was torn apart by the white dwarf’s strong gravitational pull. Because the researchers found more oxygen than expected, they propose that some of the excess may have been bound up in water. If so, the former asteroid could have been similar to the type of asteroid believed to have brought water to Earth. The team’s paper was published online today in Science.
