NASA spots first ever 'survivor’ planet orbiting close to star's corpse

National Aeronautics and Administration (NASA) on Wednesday has found first-ever planet to be closely orbiting around a white dwarf star, which is dense leftover of its Sun-like star that is only 40 percent larger than Earth. new data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and its retired Spitzer Telescope appear to indicate that planet kwn as 'WD 1856 b' is intact and in close orbit around its star. Previously scientists believed that such a search would be futile as  creation of white dwarf was expected to destroy any planets that came too close.

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' Jupiter-size object, called WD 1856 b'

" Jupiter-size object, called WD 1856 b, is about seven times larger than  white dwarf, named WD 1856+534. It circles this stellar cinder every 34 hours, more than 60 times faster than Mercury orbits our Sun", NASA said in its official statement.

“WD 1856 b somehow got very close to its white dwarf and mand to stay in one piece,” said Andrew Vanderburg, an assistant professor of astromy at University of Wisconsin-Madison. “ white dwarf creation process destroys nearby planets, and anything that later gets too close is usually torn apart by star’s immense gravity. We still have many questions about how WD 1856 b arrived at its current location without meeting one of those fates", he added.

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According to NASA, when a star like Sun runs out of fuel, it starts to swell up, going to hundreds of thousands of times its previous size, and turns into a cooler red giant. gas is n thrown out into , which causes it to shrink down again, casting out 80 percent of its mass and leaving remnants behind in form of a white dwarf, NASA said.

When this occurs, anything that is closer or nearby usually is engulfed and burned away. If WD 1856 b was as close to star as it is today, it would have suffered same fate however researchers hyposize that it actually began about 50 times furr away, and was pulled in.

"We've kwn for a long time that after white dwarfs are born, distant small objects such as asteroids and comets can scatter inward towards se stars. y're usually pulled apart by a white dwarf's strong gravity and turn into a debris disk," said co-author Siyi Xu, an assistant astromer at international Gemini Observatory in Hilo, Hawaii, which is a program of National Science Foundation's IRLab.

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Furrmore, WD 1856 b is thought to be more than 14 times size of Jupiter. Based on information scientists were able to gar as it passed in front of star, as well as of white dwarf itself. Furr research is required to confirm that conclusion and allow scientists to decisively kw that y have spotted first such example of a planet in close orbit around a white dwarf.

"re is currently evidence suggesting re are or worlds in system, but it’s possible additional planets exist and haven’t been detected yet", NASA said.  Adding furr it said y could have orbits that exceed time TESS observes a sector or are tipped in a way such that transits don’t occur. white dwarf is also so small that possibility of catching transits from planets farr out in system is very low, it said.

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