Discovery Alert!

An international team used two @NASA space telescopes (TESS & Spitzer) to find a new world around a cinder of a star.

WD 1856 b is even bigger than the white dwarf star it orbits and its very existence is a surprise – and a mystery. https://go.nasa.gov/3hBWSpV 

TESS spotted WD 1856 b about 80 light-years away, in the constellation Draco. It orbits a cool, quiet white dwarf that is roughly 11,000 miles (18,000 km) across, may be up to 10 billion years old, and is a distant member of a triple star system.

The star's journey to becoming a white dwarf would have been devastating for any nearby planets. Fates would include incineration or being ripped apart by gravity.

So, how did the Jupiter-size object get so close to the white dwarf and manage to stay in one place?

Were there several other gas giant planets farther out that were able to nudge WD 1856 b closer to the star? Could it be the influence of two other stars in the system? These are theories and we want to know more!

Researchers say the upcoming @NASAWebb could detect water and carbon dioxide on a hypothetical Earth-size planet orbiting a similar white dwarf if it was in the range of distances where liquid water might be possible on the surface.