Astronomers Discover Possible Planet Born From a Dead Star’s Ashes
Researchers say the gas giant may be a second-generation world formed from debris left after a star collapsed into a white dwarf.
- On Monday, Warwick researchers reported evidence of a 'phoenix planet' orbiting white dwarf HS 0209+0832, a potential second-generation world formed from debris left behind after the star's death.
- Unlike first-generation planets like Earth that emerge during a star's birth, second-generation planets form from material cast off during a star's final stages, as this candidate did.
- TESS data indicates a gas giant orbiting the system every 4.4 days, and astronomers identified unusual niobium levels in the star's atmosphere suggesting accretion from nearby debris.
- This finding suggests our own solar system might host similar worlds after the Sun burns out in roughly five billion years, though the new world is too hot for life.
- Researchers plan to use the James Webb Space Telescope to observe the system over the next year, which could confirm the planet and establish an entirely new planetary class around white dwarfs.
13 Articles
13 Articles
Astronomers discover possible planet born from a dead star’s ashes
By Jacopo Prisco, CNN (CNN) — In a cosmic first, scientists say they have detected a planet that may have formed from the burned remains of its dead host star.The planet is likely a gas giant orbiting a white dwarf called HS 0209+0832 located about 270 light-years from Earth, according to the authors of a
A planet born of the ashes of its dead star. The only idea seems to be the fruit of some writer's wild imagination, but it is just what an international team of astronomers from the University of Warwick has just proposed after studying a white dwarf named HS 0209+0832. The atmosphere of that world, in fact, contains a combination of chemical elements that points to its formation after the death of the star itself, from the material that it thre…
The Independent
The Independent (US)Scientists find planet unlike anything seen before
World is made up of pieces of a dying sun, researchers believe
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