Astronomers have announced the groundbreaking discovery of a Jupiter-like exoplanet that endured the death of its host star. This massive world now orbits the stellar remnant—a white dwarf—located 6,500 light-years from Earth, toward the Milky Way's core.
In several billion years, our Sun will exhaust its hydrogen fuel. Its core will contract under gravity, while outer layers expand, transforming it into a red giant. After roughly a billion years of this phase, it will shed its outer envelope and collapse into a white dwarf, cooling over billions more years until it fades entirely.
With 97% of Milky Way stars destined for this path, astrophysicists are keen to understand its impact on planetary systems. Inner planets are typically engulfed or disrupted, but a new study in Nature shows survival is possible.
Using data from Hawaii's WM Keck Observatory, researchers confirmed a giant exoplanet that outlived its Sun-like star (about 60% solar mass). This planet, 1.4 times Jupiter's mass, orbits at 420 million kilometers—comparable to the Sun-Ceres distance in our asteroid belt. Astronomically, that's quite close.
Detection relied on the microlensing technique: a foreground star briefly aligns with a background one, its gravity amplifying the distant light like a lens. An orbiting planet perturbs this light, revealing its presence.
This system offers a preview of our Solar System's fate. The expanding Sun will likely engulf Mercury, Venus, and possibly Earth, but gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn might endure, as this discovery suggests.
The team aims to statistically analyze white dwarfs for surviving planets. NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, designed for direct imaging of giant exoplanets, will advance this research.
