Scientists Find Evidence Of A Second-Generation Planet Born From A Dying Star
If confirmed, it would be the first white dwarf found to host a second-generation planet.
NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)
Way back in 1999, NASA's Hubble telescope gathered data from a white dwarf star codenamed HS 0209+0832 with 100 chemical features that couldn't be identified. Now, a team of scientists led by astronomers from the University of Warwick has published a paper in Nature, revealing that those chemical features indicate that the white dwarf hosts a second-generation planet.
A white dwarf is what remains of a star like our sun following its red giant phase, wherein it runs out of hydrogen and expands into a massive fireball that's expected to eat up nearby planets, if there are any. It's the dense core left behind after it's done burning up its nuclear fuel and shedding its outer layers.
The planets in our solar system, including the Earth, are all first-generation...
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