Astronomers who use the James Webb space telescope (JWST) have detected the first planet seen orbiting a dead star, offering new ideas about how the planets evolve the duration of the final stages of a star’s life.
The observations of the James Webb space telescope of the Exoplanet, called WD 1856+534 B, also confirm that it is the coldest exoplanet to date, which could pave the way for the first detailed atmospheric studies on the text in text.
“We were all a little surprised, and excited, discovering that it was, in fact, a planet, and very cold,” Mary Anne Anne Anne Anne Limbach, astronomer from the University of Michigan, who directed the new study, told Space.com.
WD 1856+534 B, a world of the size of Jupiter located about 80 light years from Earth, it was First discovered in 2020. Orbit a white dwarf, the remaining nucleus of a star that once was, every 1.4 days. Initially, scientists were not sure if the object was a planet or brown dwarf, the call “Failed stars“O The universe, because they only had limited temperature data regarding the now removed Spitzer Space Telescope. However, the new JWST data have now provided much more sensitive measurements, which allows astronomers directly detecting the planet’s light and measuring their mass and temperature.
The results confirmed that WD 1856+534 B is in fact a planet.
What makes this confirmation especially intriguing is the survival of the planet in the so -called “forbidden zone” of its star, a region so close to the white dwarf that any world inside should have been destroyed when the star expanded during its red giant phase, growing its original size to many times before shrinking in its current, dense and earth -size form.
“This is a convincing evidence that the planets can not only survive the violent death of their star, but also to go to the orbits where we did not necessarily expect them to exist,” Limbach said. Beyond refining models of planetary evolution, the findings suggest that such migration could be key to moving the planets to the “habitable areas” of white dwarfs where life as we know could arise.
“It is a fascinating process, and this confirmation gives us the first observation test that can happen,” Limbach said.
In a frigid -125 degrees Fahrenheit (-87 degrees Celsius), WD 1856+534 B is the coldest planet ever observed directly, surfing with the previous registration holder, Epsilon Indi Ab, which is 3 Celsius) (2 degrees).
Although the JWST has not yet reached its theoretical ability to detect planets such as -324.67 degrees Fahrenheit (-198.15 degrees Celsius), the next programs aim to achieve that threshold. And, if everything goes as planned, those next data would be to accelerate the detections of temperatures, ages and masses or exoplanets similar to Jupiter and Saturn.
“That is a big step forward,” Limbach said. “It is a strange opportunity to place the ODN solar system in a broader galactic context.”
Limbach and the team plan to make a second JWST observation of the WD 1856+534 system this July. When comparing the system position with the background stars a year after the initial observation, researchers expect to detect additional planets that may be gravitationally linked to the star.
The detection of another planet could explain how WD 1856+534 B migrated to its current closed orbit around the white dwarf. Even if there are no other planets, the follow -up data will help astronomers reduce other possible explanations of how worlds such as WD 1856+534b end in white dwarf orbit to such a short range, Limbach said.
“Anyway, it is a next crucial step to discover how these systems evolve.”
This research is detailed in a Preimpression paper Published in the Archive Arxiv that has not yet been reviewed in pairs.
