Dust to dust: Astronomers witness death of stars like our sun - in a 'solar sandstorm' blasting out at 20,000mph
Sand storms in space have been discovered by astronomers watching the death-throes of giant stars.
Three ‘red giants’ were observed having their atmospheres ripped away by a ‘superwind’ containing dusty grains of silica.
The grains were unexpectedly large in size for stellar wind particles, measuring almost a micrometer across.
Astronomers have discovered sandstorms in space after using state-of-the-art techniques to search the atmospheres of distant, dying stars Superwinds carrying the dust that can travel up to 20,000 miles an hour have been observed travelling around three red giants in the Milky Way
They were driven into space by starlight at rocket-velocity speeds of around 20,000 mph.
The discovery, made by astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, is reported in the journal Nature.
Scientists previously knew that many stars end their lives with a ‘superwind’ that removes as much as half of their mass over a period of around 10,000 years.
Eventually only a dying and fading remnant of the star is left. The Sun will start to undergo this fatal process in around five billion years after expanding in size to become a red giant.
Superwinds were thought to be driven by tiny dust grains, but how the mechanism works has been a mystery.
Computer simulations suggested that the dust grains would evaporate before being ejected by a star. But the new observations suggest they are big enough reflect starlight instead of absorbing it, and to avoid being destroyed.
Lead scientist Professor Albert Zijlstra, from the University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Observatory, said: ‘The dust and sand in the superwind will survive the star and later become part of the clouds in space from which stars form.
‘The sand grains at that time become the building blocks of planets. Our own Earth has formed from star dust. We are now a big step further in understanding this cycle of life and death.’
- Video captures Dallas HS student attacking teacher in class
- Tulane student shot in armed robbery in New Orleans
- Armed NM couple hold burglar at gunpoint until police arrive
- Snowed under! Iowa stadium's failed attempts of snow removal
- Emma Parkinson tells what happened in the Bataclan Theatre
- Texas woman fires her gun at would-be purse snatcher
- SNL pokes fun at Ben Carson's stance on Syrian refugees
- Black Lives Matter protester removed from Trump rally
- Adorable little boy battles hiccups as he sings national...
- Adorable video of Daisy learning to run in prosthetic legs
- Conrad Barrett films himself attacking elderly black man
- Australian tourists arrested in Bolivia after dynamite found
- Former babysitter, 21, charged with abducting two-year-old...
- Forget the battering Ronda Rousey took to the face - what...
- Celine Dion brings American Music Awards to tears by singing...
- Three suspects arrested over rape and murder of pregnant...
- University's free yoga class is shut down over 'cultural...
- Video shows the moment Dallas high school teacher is...
- Ghost town Brussels: Schools shut, shops deserted and metro...
- Eagles of Death Metal describe horror of Bataclan massacre...
- Campus zealots hound student out of lectures and bars with...
- George and Amal Clooney create their very own love nest with...
- Two Abdeslam brothers in Paris attacks 'stopped drinking and...
- 'There was no one that didn't have blood on them':...