Alien ‘Phoenix Planet’ Was Born From the Ashes of a Dying Star
Unusual niobium signatures and TESS brightness changes suggest the white dwarf is accreting from a Jupiter-size planet formed from stellar debris.
- 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.
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185 Articles
The death of a star does not necessarily mean the end of its planetary system. An amazing discovery, made from data collected by the Hubble space telescope for more than 25 years, suggests that a planet may have been born precisely from the remains of the star now orbiting it. The discovery challenges what we know about the [...]
Star-Herald
Alien 'phoenix planet' was born from the ashes of a dying star
In ancient mythology, the phoenix was a miraculous bird with a cyclical pattern of life and death, perishing in flames only to rise again from the ashes. Astronomers have now found a world that rightly can be called a phoenix planet.
Astronomers may have discovered a planet born from the remains of a dead star. Its discovery could solve a thirty-year-old astronomical mystery.
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