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 pic.twitter.com/kHUpfqgm2c
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Potential Giant World Circles a Tiny StarWatch to learn how a possible giant planet may have survived its tiny star’s chaotic history. Jupiter-size WD 1856 b is nearly seven times larger than the white dwarf it orbits every day and a half.Show this thread
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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.
pic.twitter.com/V1oSH3taRE1 reply 28 retweets 165 likesShow this thread -
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?pic.twitter.com/4oSk6i5dpY
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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!pic.twitter.com/i8xDLZOrBR
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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.pic.twitter.com/xwfJOmrFjX6 replies 46 retweets 229 likesShow this thread -
Replying to @NASAExoplanets @NASAWebb
For an Earth-size planet to harbor liquid water around a white dwarf, it would need to be ridiculously close in wouldn’t it? Under such circumstances the planet would be tidally locked.
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We asked Ryan MacDonald, one of the co-authors on the ApJL article for an answer to this. "Yes, the white dwarf habitable zone is 100x closer than Earth orbits the Sun. Most exoplanets we have studied to date are tidally locked, and that would also be true here."
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