Astronomers say they have the first evidence of a collision between two planets in a distant star system. They believe that the collision of two objects has created a world rich in iron. This resulting planet is 10 x heavier than our planet Earth. Scientists believe that a similar collision led to the formation of the Moon before 4,5 for billions of years.

Observation in the Canary Islands

They gathered in the Canary Islands to observe the starry sky distant 1600 light-years away. They found a planet called Kepler 107c - it has a core full of iron. This makes up 70% of its mass, the remainder being a rocky cloak. Another observed planet is Kepler 107b - it is about 1,5 x bigger than our planet Earth. But dense only half.

Observation was carried out at Telescopio Nazionale Galileo in La Palma

Observed planets orbiting a sun-like star called Kepler 107 v the constellation Cygnus.

Scientists believe that an iron-rich pallet has been created by colliding with another object that has pulled a portion of the outer shell of the planet. They calculated that at the time of the collision planets had to travel at more than 60 km per second.

Dr. Zoë Leinhardt said:

"We used computer simulations to test different versions of the collision and formation of Kepler 107c. There may have been a collision between Kepler 107c and one object. Another possibility is that the planet has been hit by several smaller objects. The question is, why did this only happen Kepler 107c? ”

Dr. Chris Watson of Queen's University says:

"We found two planets in a very similar orbit, but each has a completely different density. One object is made up of rocks, the other is made up of a much denser material, probably iron. The only way to explain this is that the second object also had rocks on the surface that were removed by the collision. "

Another thought that radiation from the parent star could have been eliminated by removing rocks and gas. This process would have led to 107b being much denser than 107c.

Kepler 107

Collisions

Research published in Nature Astronomy raises questions about how the planets originated and how they were, with time, formed, created and changed in distant parts of the universe.

Dr. Leinhardt explains that the planets probably tended to get out of their stars. But gravity dragged their gas container back. This process is called accretion. Acrection is a process during which volume increases due to the attachment of the outer particles to the body itself. With respect to the gravity and star effects, both planets moved, which could cause collisions.