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ASTRONOMERS have discovered the cosmic residue of dead Earth-like planets, thought to have incinerated 10 billion years ago - making them the galaxy s oldest-known space bodies.
The dust of dead Earth-like planets has been discovered in the atmosphere of nearby white dwarfs for the first time. The vaporized crusts consist of lithium, potassium and calcium.
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IMAGE: Remnants of planetary crust disintegrating under the tidal forces around a cool white dwarf. Material in the disc becomes vapourised close to the central star and flows onto the white. view more
Credit: University of Warwick/Mark Garlick
Observations of lithium and potassium around white dwarf stars point to remains of rocky planet crusts
Analysis by astronomers led by University of Warwick shows chemical composition of crusts is very similar to Earth s continental crust
The outer layers of the white dwarfs contain up to 300,000 gigatonnes of rocky debris, which includes up to 60 gigatonnes of lithium and 3,000 gigatonnes of potassium