For the first time, an international team of astronomers using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and retired Spitzer Space Telescope has reported what may be the first intact planet found closely
orbiting a white dwarf, the dense leftover of a Sun-like star, only 40% larger than Earth.
The Jupiter-sized object, called WD 1856 b, is about seven times larger than the white dwarf, named WD 1856+534.
It circles this stellar cinder every 34 hours, more than 60 times faster than Mercury orbits our Sun.
The satellite spotted WD 1856 b about 80 light-years away in the northern constellation Draco. It orbits a cool, quiet white dwarf that is roughly 11,000 miles (18,000 kilometers) across, may be up to 10 billion years old, and
is a distant member of a triple star system.
When a Sun-like star runs out of fuel, it swells up to hundreds to thousands of times its original size, forming a cooler red giant star. Eventually, it ejects its outer layers of gas, losing up to 80% of its mass.
The remaining hot core becomes a white dwarf. Any nearby objects are typically engulfed and incinerated during this process, which in this system would have included WD 1856 b in its current orbit.