Giant planet discovered near a dead star

(ORDO NEWS) — Astronomers observed a dead star in the constellation Draco and noticed a huge planet the size of Jupiter near it. This star system is located 80 light-years from our planet. This discovery is reported by the publication “Nature”.

Scientists have found that the brightness of a dying star is halved every 34 hours. This can only say about one thing – there is something massive next to it. But what kind of object it was, it was impossible to see because of the glare of light from a nearby star. And then the scientists used additional data obtained by ground-based telescopes with higher resolution.

It turned out that there is a giant planet near the dead star. Astronomers have assigned it to the designation WD 1856 b. The researchers note that the planet seems to hang over a tiny star, making one revolution around it in 34 Earth hours. Moreover, the distance between these celestial bodies is 20 times less than between Mercury and the Sun.

Astronomers called the current situation surprising since usually, a dying star engulfs all the planets around it, and WD 1856 was miraculously saved. Scientists explained this by the fact that when the star began to fade away, the giant planet was at a considerable distance from it. And when the rapprochement occurred, the star had already turned into a white dwarf by that time.

For astronomers, this study is interesting primarily because, in the distant future, our star will also inevitably begin to fade away and turn into a white dwarf. Previously, it was believed that all planets die as a result of the death of a star, but new data refutes this theory.

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