This Giant Planet Survived the Death of its Star

This artist's illustration shows the giant exoplanet WD 1856 b orbiting its much smaller white dwarf star. Somehow, this planet survived the star's transition from main sequence star, to red giant, to white dwarf. How did that happen? What does it mean for potential habitability on planets like this? Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)

Some planets can survive when their main sequence stars "die" and evolve into red giants. Astronomers have found several of them. One of them in particular is orbiting extremely close to its star, providing an opportunity to study it with the JWST to determine how it got there.

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