First giant exoplanet discovered orbiting around a white dwarf planet

Exoplanets are the planets that orbit around other stars. So all of the planets in our solar system are exoplanets as they orbit around the Sun. It is quite hard to see exoplanets directly using telescopes as they are hidden by the bright glare of the stars they orbit. This is why astronomers use various other ways to find such planets. One of the methods is by looking at the effects such planets have on the stars around which they orbit. Recently, astronomers discovered the first giant planet the size of Jupiter orbiting around a dead star.

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First Giant Exoplanet discovered orbiting around a dead star

Astronomers discovered a planet that is roughly the same size as Jupiter orbiting around a dead star. It is the first time ever that a still intact exoplanet has been discovered orbiting around a white dwarf as the gravity from a white dwarf breaks apart any nearby planets.

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Researchers said the fate of this giant planet, called WD 1586 b, offers a potential vision of our own Solar System when the Sun eventually ages into a white dwarf in around five billion years.

The fate of this giant planet known as WD 1586 b is like a vision of our own Solar system after five billion years when the Sun uses up all the hydrogen and turns into a white dwarf, researchers said. When a star burns off all its hydrogen, it starts dying slowly by first becoming many times larger into a "Red Giant" which is several times hotter than what it was as a normal star. This red giant eats up every planet nearby.

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Soon after its phase as a red giant, it starts collapsing and gets reduced to the size of its burnt-out core. This is what is known as a white dwarf. It is an extremely dense stellar ember glowing faintly with leftover thermal energy which slowly fades away in over billions of years.

While previous research has shown that some white dwarfs can have distant remnants from their previous planetary systems, no planets have been seen which are orbiting around an extinguished star and are still intact. This dying star is located around 80 light-years from Earth in a constellation known as Draco. This dying star is located 80 light-years from Earth in the Draco constellation.

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Image Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Promo Image Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center