Astronomers have discovered the shattered remains of a dead planet orbiting a dead sun in a distant, desolate solar system.

The dead planet’s broken heart consists of heavy metal, and it orbits at breakneck speed through a dirty cosmic boneyard full of other chunks of dead planets. Mourn the dead planet and its dead star if you like, but do not pity them; one day, astronomers say, our solar system will probably look much the same.

This grim conclusion, which is described in the journal Science, comes from observing a dead planet chunk (or “planetesimal”) circling a white dwarf star in a solar system about 410 million light-years away from Earth.

source: livescience.com