THE half-digested remains of a dwarf planet could provide the best insight yet into the chemical make-up of alien solar systems.
The atmospheres of some white dwarf stars contain heavy elements, which are thought to result from eating asteroids. Patrick Dufour of the University of Montreal in Canada and colleagues have now found a white dwarf with the most contaminated atmosphere yet, suggesting it ate something as big as a dwarf planet.
The star’s spectrum should contain strong signatures of any elements present in its atmosphere. This would reveal the most detailed breakdown yet of a rocky object from another solar system (…
