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How did astronomers led by Nicola Gentile Fusillo of the University of Trieste use the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope and its X-shooter spectrograph in Chile’s Atacama Desert to discover the first double debris disc around the white dwarf J1328−1450, about 1
Astronomers inferred two separate gaseous debris rings around WD J1328−1450 from its spectrum, rather than directly photographing two rings; the system lies about 1,600 light-years away and is reported in Nature Astronomy in “A double debris disc around a white dwarf sculpted by two planetary bodi Astronomers inferr...
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Key takeaways
- Astronomers inferred two separate gaseous debris rings around WD J1328−1450 from its spectrum, rather than directly photographing two rings; the system lies about 1,600 light-years away and is reported in *Nature Astronomy* in “A double debris disc around a white dwarf sculpted by two planetary bodi
- Astronomers inferred two separate gaseous debris rings around WD J1328−1450 from its spectrum, rather than directly photographing two rings; the system lies about 1,600 light-years away and is reported in *Nature Astronomy* in “A double debris disc around a white dwarf sculpted b
- ## How the double disc was identified
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Astronomers inferred two separate gaseous debris rings around WD J1328−1450 from its spectrum, rather than directly photographing two rings; the system lies about 1,600 light-years away and is reported in Nature Astronomy in “A double debris disc around a white dwarf sculpted by two planetary bodies.” 1
3 The double-ring interpretation is supported by the observations, but the proposed surviving bodies are an explanation—not two directly detected planets.
How the double disc was identified
- Spectroscopy: Gentile Fusillo’s team used X-shooter on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile to measure the motions of gas around the white dwarf, finding two distinct velocity components.
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- Four peaks instead of two: The 21 previously known comparable gaseous white-dwarf debris systems showed double-peaked emission lines, whereas this system showed four peaks—the signature interpreted as two concentric rotating gas rings separated by a gap.
- Ring dimensions: The inner ring extends approximately 100,000–240,000 kilometres from the star, and the outer ring approximately 375,000–more than 1.3 million kilometres.
- Gas versus dust: The two gas rings are embedded within a broader dust disc, so a gap in the emitting gas does not necessarily mean the region contains no solid debris.
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- Repeated observations: The available results identify observations between 2021 and 2023, but their excerpts do not provide the measurements needed to quantify how stable the emission profiles remained.
What the surviving-body explanation establishes—and does not
- The researchers propose that two surviving planetesimals maintain the separate gaseous discs, making this the first reported complex double-disc white-dwarf system with potentially two such survivors.
- The supplied excerpts do not establish the detailed size estimates—an asteroid-sized inner object and a Pluto- or Moon-sized outer object—or explain quantitatively how gas production, cooling and re-solidification preserve the gap. Insufficient evidence to verify those particulars.
- Consequently, the discovery should not be described as a direct detection of two intact planets, or as proof that their sizes and histories are already known.
Composition and possible origins
- The evidence supplied here does not contain the calcium, oxygen, magnesium and iron measurements, the relative magnesium abundances of the rings, or their uncertainties. Insufficient evidence to verify which ring is magnesium-rich.
- It therefore cannot establish whether the material came from two different planets or chemically different layers of one disrupted body. Those possibilities should remain hypotheses rather than conclusions on the evidence available.
What it says about the Solar System’s future
- A white dwarf is the remnant core of a Sun-like star that has expelled its outer layers; J1328−1450 shows that planetary debris can persist around such a remnant in a more complicated structure than a single gas ring.
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- The proposed surviving planetesimals illustrate that a star’s transformation need not erase every planetary body, although survival in this particular system remains inferred.
- This makes the system an informative analogue for the Solar System’s distant evolution, not a prediction of Earth’s exact fate or evidence that our Sun will acquire an identical double disc.
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Astronomers inferred two separate gaseous debris rings around WD J1328−1450 from its spectrum, rather than directly photographing two rings; the system lies about 1,600 light-years away and is reported in *Nature Astronomy* in “A double debris disc around a white dwarf sculpted by two planetary bodi
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Astronomers inferred two separate gaseous debris rings around WD J1328−1450 from its spectrum, rather than directly photographing two rings; the system lies about 1,600 light-years away and is reported in *Nature Astronomy* in “A double debris disc around a white dwarf sculpted by two planetary bodi Astronomers inferred two separate gaseous debris rings around WD J1328−1450 from its spectrum, rather than directly photographing two rings; the system lies about 1,600 light-years away and is reported in *Nature Astronomy* in “A double debris disc around a white dwarf sculpted b
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## How the double disc was identified
Sources
link.springer.comAccretion Disks in Protoplanetary Systems