CfA: Cosmic "Death Star" Is Destroying a Planet

[bystander]

Cosmic "Death Star" is Destroying a Planet
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics | 2015 Oct 21

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The Death Star of the movie Star Wars may be fictional, but planetary destruction is real. Astronomers announced today that they have spotted a large, rocky object disintegrating in its death spiral around a distant white dwarf star. The discovery also confirms a long-standing theory behind the source of white dwarf "pollution" by metals.

"This is something no human has seen before," says lead author Andrew Vanderburg of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). "We're watching a solar system get destroyed."

The evidence for this unique system came from NASA's Kepler K2 mission, which monitors stars for a dip in brightness that occurs when an orbiting body crosses the star. The data revealed a regular dip every 4.5 hours, which places the object in an orbit about 520,000 miles from the white dwarf (about twice the distance from the Earth to the Moon). It is the first planetary object to be seen transiting a white dwarf.

Vanderburg and his colleagues made additional observations using a number of ground-based facilities: the 1.2-meter and MINERVA telescopes at Whipple Observatory, the MMT, MEarth-South, and Keck. ...

K2 Finds Dead Star Vaporizing a Mini “Planet”
NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) | Kepler K2 | 2015 Oct 21

A disintegrating minor planet transiting a white dwarf - Andrew Vanderburg et al

• Nature 526(7574):546 (22 Oct 2015) DOI: 10.1038/nature15527

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<<Alderaan, located in the Core Worlds, was the second planet in the Alderaan system. A lush, mountainous world, the native Killiks evolved from the most intelligent non-sentient species on the planet circa 1,000,000 BBY. Constructing massive hives, such as in the Castle Lands near Oroboro, the Killiks ruled the planet until departing for deep space after consuming all of Alderaan's natural resources. Alderaan was the homeworld of some of the galaxy's most famous animals, such as the nerf and the thranta. Human colonists came to the planet from Coruscant in 27,500 BBY and built a peaceful civilization in harmony with nature. In the Castle Lands, the remains of Killik mounds stood as a silent testament to the indigenous species that had disappeared for unknown reasons. Alderaanian cities were often built with great care taken to protect nature. Aldera, known for its university, was built on a small island in the center of a caldera.

• Wilhuff Tarkin: "Since you are reluctant to provide us with the location of the Rebel base, I have chosen to test this station's destructive power on your home planet of Alderaan."
  
  Princess Leia: "No! Alderaan is peaceful. We have no weapons! You can't possibly…!"
  
  Wilhuff Tarkin: "You would prefer another target? A military target? Then name the system!"

In a demonstration of its power to Princess Leia, Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin ordered the destruction of her home, despite Leia's protest. When Death Star gunner Tenn Graneet threw the switch to initiate primary ignition, power was channeled from the hypermatter reactor through the Superlaser, coming out at super luminal velocity. The beam pushed a large part of Alderaan's mass into hyperspace, causing the planet to nova.

The deaths of the billions of sentient people caused a massive disturbance in the Force. Obi-Wan Kenobi felt the disturbance while en route to the Alderaan system, and told Luke Skywalker that it felt "as if millions of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.">>

<<In 2012–13, a proposal on the White House's web site urging the United States government to build a real Death Star as an economic stimulus and job creation measure gained more than 30,000 signatures, enough to qualify for an official response. The official response was released in January 2013 and noted that the cost of building a real Death Star has been estimated at $850 quadrillion, while the International Business Times cited a Centives economics blog calculation that at current rates of steel production, the Death Star would not be ready for more than 833,000 years.

The White House response also stated "the Administration does not support blowing up planets" and questions about funding weapon "with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship" as reasons for denying the petition. According to one scientist's reaction to the petition, the amount of energy the Death Star's superlaser would need to destroy a planet is 1,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms of matter, for each time fired.>>

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A Dead Star Is Vaporizing Its Planets By Phil Plait