NASA Spots First-Ever ‘Survivor’ Planet Orbiting A Sun-Like Dwarf Star
Image via NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
An international group of astronomers used NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and Spitzer Space Telescope and spotted the first-known planet to be intact while orbiting a white dwarf, which is a dense leftover of a sun-like star.
The planet, called WD 1856 b, is similar in size in comparison to Jupiter, and about seven times larger than the white dwarf, known as D 1856+534.
Andrew Vanderburg, assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, noted that the WD 1856 b managed to survive and stay whole after coming in close contact with the white dwarf.
This is remarkable as the white dwarf’s “creation process destroys nearby planets, and anything that later gets too close [to it] usually [will be] torn apart by the star’s immense gravity.”
[via NASA, cover image via NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center]
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