{"id":7079293,"date":"2026-10-07T14:00:40","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T14:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7079293"},"modified":"2026-10-07T14:00:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T14:00:40","slug":"like-a-mythical-phoenix-this-planet-may-have-risen-from-the-ashes-of-a-dead-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7079293","title":{"rendered":"Like a Mythical Phoenix, This Planet May Have Risen From the Ashes of a Dead Star"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The \u201csecond-generation\u201d world, predicted from telescope data, could be the first known planet of its kind, and it may shed light on the future of our own solar system<\/h2>\n
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\n \"Margherita\n <\/div>\n
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Margherita Bassi<\/a><\/p>\n

| Daily Correspondent<\/span><\/p>\n

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An artistic concept of the\u00a0second-generation planet orbiting the white dwarf HS 0209+0832
\n Snehalata Sahu \/ University of Warwick<\/span>
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In 1999, the Hubble Space Telescope turned its gaze upon a white dwarf<\/a>\u2014a dense remnant of a star\u2014and detected around 100 mysterious chemical features in its atmosphere. More than two decades later, astronomers have now taken another look at the enigmatic data and realized that it points to the presence of a very unusual cosmic body.<\/p>\n

In a study published this week in Nature Astronomy<\/em><\/a>, researchers reveal the possibility that a \u201csecond-generation\u201d planet is orbiting the white dwarf. In other words, this world might have been born from the scraps of the dead star. If these findings are confirmed, the planet would be the first of its kind known to researchers and could provide insight into a potential future for our own solar system.<\/p>\n

After a small star runs out of nuclear fuel, it sheds its wrapping of gas and dust, leaving behind a core known as a white dwarf. The team suggests that a planet orbiting the white dwarf HS 0209+0832<\/a> came together from the accretion of its lost gas and dust, like a sort of astronomical phoenix.<\/p>\n

\u201cA phoenix is reborn from the ashes of its predecessor, and this planet is formed from the ashes of the star,\u201d study co-author Jamie Williams<\/a>, an astronomer at the University of Warwick in England, tells Science News<\/em><\/a>\u2019 Lisa Grossman.<\/p>\n

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Did you know? White dwarfs<\/p>\n

White dwarfs consist of very tightly packed matter. Just one teaspoon of this ultra-dense material would, on Earth, weigh as much as an elephant<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

When Williams returned to Hubble\u2019s 1999 data, he noticed that many of the mysterious chemical features could be niobium<\/a>, a kind of metal used in jewelry and medical imaging devices. As opposed to many common elements, niobium is too heavy to be created by the fusion reactions that happen within a star.<\/p>\n

Instead, niobium forms \u201cin the exotic conditions that briefly emerge inside dying stars,\u201d study co-author Nicholas Stone<\/a>, a theoretical astrophysicist at the University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison, says in a NASA statement<\/a>. As such, niobium is a marker for stellar death. And while this star\u2019s death throes ejected material, including niobium, out to space, part of it formed into a gas giant planet, the researchers hypothesize.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard for planets to come together in these conditions, however, which partly explains why second-generation planets are exceptionally rare, Williams adds in a university statement<\/a>. The gravity of another star was probably necessary to shape the expelled material into a planet-birthing disk.<\/p>\n

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Hubble recorded unexpected amounts of niobium in the white dwarf. The metal absorbs light, which explains why the telescope detected less light at those wavelengths.<\/p>\n

NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Using NASA\u2019s TESS satellite<\/a>, the team recognized periodic changes in HS 0209+0832\u2019s brightness that point to an orbiting planet passing in front of it. According to their estimations, this candidate planet\u2014it\u2019s not yet confirmed\u2014is a gas giant with a close orbit of around 3.7 million miles. This is about ten times closer than Mercury\u2019s orbit is to our sun, meaning the planet would be getting blasted by the relatively young white dwarf\u2019s energy. That might be ripping off the planet\u2019s external material and possibly turning it into a disk that rains debris back onto the white dwarf, which would explain why a large amount of niobium made its way into Hubble\u2019s data.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know of a large number of white dwarfs that are polluted by planetary material, which is similar in composition to rocks within our solar system,\u201d Sarah Casewell<\/a>, an observational astronomer at the University of Leicester in England, who did not participate in the study, tells CNN<\/a>\u2019s Jacopo Prisco. \u201cHowever, in this case, the white dwarf is polluted by incredibly unusual material, and the composition of this material is similar to atoms we see being created as stars end their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The illustrated progression of a star’s death and the creation of a second-generation planet<\/p>\n

NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If the planet does exist, its loss of material is not likely to make it wither away entirely. \u201cEventually the white dwarf will cool and then maintain a consistent temperature, with the planet in its stable habitable zone for millions of years,\u201d\u00a0Williams says in NASA\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n

Moving forward, he plans to continue using Hubble to investigate second-generation planets and how they are born around dead stars. This research marks the first time that astronomers have found niobium in a white dwarf, but it might not necessarily be the last.<\/p>\n

If the team\u2019s results are confirmed, they could provide a model for understanding what might one day happen much closer to home. \u201cThe sun will eventually become a white dwarf, so we\u2019re also looking at the future of the solar system here,\u201d study co-author David Wilson<\/a>, an astronomer at the University of Colorado Boulder, tells CNN. \u201cMaybe the sun will get a new planet someday.\u201d<\/p>\n

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