The powerful magnetic field of the dead star WD0810-353, located 36 light-years from Earth, led scientists to believe that its remains were going to fly through our solar system at high speed. Panic was avoided only thanks to a more detailed analysis of the star.

This is stated in an article to be published in The Astrophysical Journal. The repeated study revealed that the star is quite normal and is not going to put on a potentially dangerous show for earthlings.

According to John Landstreet from the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium in the UK, who led the team of astronomers who conducted the study, the scientists were actually surprised by the star's powerful magnetic field, which confused them, forcing them to misinterpret the trajectory of the star in the Milky Way galaxy.

Despite the fact that the star turned out to be less sensational, scientists now believe that it can still be useful, as it will help scientists better understand how the magnetic fields of white dwarfs evolve as they cool.

Scientists note that the very theory that an object in the galaxy can cause disorder in our solar system is quite real. After all, our system is not protected from the rest of the galaxy by any force or any other field.

If another star does collide with our solar system, scientists say it could have devastating consequences.

The white dwarf WD0810-353 was originally thought to be travelling at 373.7 (232 miles) kilometres per second and would eventually fly into our solar system, where it would collide with the Oort Cloud, which contains aggregates of small icy bodies, scattering frozen debris into the inner part of the solar system in the form of comets. This, according to scientists, would have a significant impact on the future of the system. But this would happen only after 29 thousand years.

Further research revealed that there had been miscalculations in the speed of the white dwarf. Astronomers Raúl and Carlos de la Fuente Marcos from the Complutense University of Madrid in Spain determined that the star's true speed is absolutely insane - more than 4,200 kilometres per second. This is not as impressive as the 300,000 kilometres per second at which light travels, but still.

White dwarfs are the remnants of star cores that are about 8 times less massive than the Sun, and they often fly around the galaxy at high speeds as a result of uneven explosions; but scientists have never seen such speeds.

Therefore, the authors of the new study - Landstreet and his colleagues - suggested that the star's speed was actually being recorded by mistake, as the powerful magnetic field distorts the white dwarf's spectrum.

They conducted a new study that confirmed their suspicions. It was found that the true speed of the star is "only" about 83 kilometres per second and it is unlikely to ever collide with the Oort Cloud.

Earlier, OBOZREVATEL also reported that a black hole in a distant galaxy turned around, directing a beam towards the Earth and puzzling physicists.

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