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Scientists discovered first-of-its-kind evidence of a possible second-generation planet around a white dwarf star some 270 light years away from Earth.
Astronomers found chemical signatures that indicated that gases cast off from the dead star HS 0209+0832 had coalesced into an alien world roughly the size of Jupiter, according to a study published last week in Nature Astronomy.
A team of UK-based scientists took a second look at data garnered from NASA’s Hubble Telescope in 1999 and noted about 100 unidentified chemical features around the dense dead star, which is located in the Milky Way and can be seen in the constellation Cetus.
Researchers theorized that the discovery of abundant “astronomically special” elements like niobium and other elements heavier than iron suggest that a planet had been formed and HS 0209+0832 had been feeding off it.
The experts believe that the planet was formed from stellar material ejected from the white dwarf as it dies. In contrast, most planets — like those in our solar system — are created when a star is born.
“These heavy elements can only be synthesized in the exotic conditions that briefly emerge inside dying stars,” Dr. Nicholas Stone, a theoretical astrophysicist at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and study co-author, told Sci.News.
Scientists also found a repeating brightness cycle of about 4.4 days, which could line up with the day and night temperature variation of a massive planet orbiting very close to its star — at .04 Astronomical Units, or 25 times closer than the Earth is to the Sun.
If the purported planet exists, it was losing atmosphere, but researchers were hopeful about its fate.
“If the second-generation planet is there, I think it is likely to survive,” University of Warwick astronomer and study co-author Jamie Williams said, according to the article.
“Eventually the white dwarf will cool and then maintain a consistent temperature, with the planet in its stable habitable zone for millions of years.”
The steady temperature could mean a close-in rocky planet could remain habitable for tens of billions of year, far longer than Earth which will be engulfed or burned by the Sun when it dies within 5 billion years, Williams noted to Universe Today.
The discovery of the first-ever second generation planet had yet to be officially verified and more research was needed, experts said.