{"id":2406,"date":"2026-10-18T04:16:42","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T01:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/?p=2406"},"modified":"2026-10-18T04:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T01:19:14","slug":"white-dwarfs-may-be-the-beginning-of-a-new-second-generation-planetary-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/2026\/10\/18\/white-dwarfs-may-be-the-beginning-of-a-new-second-generation-planetary-system\/","title":{"rendered":"White dwarfs may be the beginning of a new, second-generation planetary system"},"content":{"rendered":"

Astronomers, revisiting observations made decades ago with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, have discovered an unexpected chemical signature around a white dwarf: niobium, a heavy element formed during the final stages of the star’s life. Combined with observations from other NASA missions, these data point to an intriguing possibility: a Jupiter-sized world may have formed from material ejected during the star’s death. If confirmed, this “second-generation planet” could demonstrate that a star’s death doesn’t always mean the end of its planetary system. Sometimes, it can be the beginning of a new one.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Astronomers’ meticulous research has uncovered a surprising chemical clue that the white dwarf HS 0209+0832 may host a second-generation planet. The conceptual image shown here, released on October 5, 2026, illustrates this possible explanation.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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\nThis artist’s conception offers a possible explanation for the unusual chemical composition detected by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in the HS 0209+0832 system: a second-generation planet orbiting a white dwarf. NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

A white dwarf is the “dead” core of a star that has exhausted all its nuclear fuel and lost its outer shell of gas and dust into space. A second-generation planet formed from this ejected gas and dust, so its chemical composition is very different from that of the planet that formed during the formation of its star.<\/span><\/p>\n

Astronomers’ meticulous research has solved a long-standing case in NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope data archive. In a study published on October 5, 2026, in the journal Nature Astronomy, the scientists report the discovery of a surprising chemical clue indicating that the white dwarf HS 0209+0832 may be a second-generation planet.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A white dwarf is the remnant core of a low-mass star that has exhausted all its nuclear fuel and lost its outer envelope of gas and dust into space. A second-generation planet is a world that forms around the star’s remnant from the ejected material.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

“Rather than viewing the white dwarf stage as a kind of epilogue to the story of the star and its planets, this study suggests that the systems we know are just the first chapter of a potentially much longer story, one in which new characters will emerge. This is a truly exciting prospect for further research,” said Jamie Williams, an astronomer and lead author of the study, and a PhD student at the University of Warwick in the UK.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earth and the other planets in our solar system are first-generation planets, formed from the material left over from the birth of a star.<\/span><\/p>\n

“What Hubble is showing us in this white dwarf system is something we haven’t seen before: high abundances of the element niobium, a signature I didn’t recognize when I first discovered it in the archival data,” Williams said.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the Hubble Space Telescope first observed this star in 1999, the data contained approximately 100 chemical signatures that could not be identified. Williams returned to these records, armed with an updated chemical database, and discovered that niobium matched many of these mysterious signatures, according to a NASA press release.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nThis artist’s concept, not drawn to scale, depicts the evolution of a Sun-like star (1) into an aging red giant (2) and then into a small, bright white dwarf, surrounded by a disk of ejected outer layers (3), from which a second-generation planet (4) is forming. NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Williams explained that while niobium is common in our solar system and has many uses on Earth, including in jewelry and medical imaging devices, the amount detected by the Hubble telescope in the HS 0209+0832 system indicates that the planet formed not from material produced at the star’s birth, but from material ejected at its death.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Niobium and other elements heavier than iron are astronomically peculiar because, unlike many common elements, they are not formed in the cores of stars through thermonuclear fusion,” said Nicholas Stone, a theoretical astrophysicist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a member of the research team. “Instead, these heavy elements can only be synthesized under the exotic conditions that briefly occur inside dying stars. The presence of niobium is a signature of these death throes and the ejection of the dying star’s innards into space.”<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the researchers, after the star ejected this chemically enriched material, some of it condensed into the gas giant. The rest of the ejecta dissipated long ago, but the planet survived.<\/span><\/p>\n

“When Jamie asked me about niobium in connection with this study, I was truly stunned, as this element hadn’t been detected in any other white dwarf analyzed to date. Once we realized it was there, everything fell into place,” said astronomer and study co-author Boris Gensicke, also of the University of Warwick.<\/span><\/p>\n

The research team confirmed the Hubble observations with data from NASA’s completed Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) mission, which also showed strong evidence of niobium in the HS 0209+0832 system.<\/span><\/p>\n

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) also observed the white dwarf for four months, allowing it to detect periodic changes in brightness indicating that the planet orbits at a distance of about 3.7 million miles (6 million kilometers), much closer than Mercury orbits the Sun.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nA spectrum obtained by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reveals unusual abundances of some elements found in the HS 0209+0832 system. The dips indicate regions where niobium, nickel, and calcium absorb light, so less light in this part of the spectrum reaches Hubble. NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The research team hypothesizes that the candidate planet is a gas giant roughly the size of Jupiter that is rapidly losing its atmosphere. Because the white dwarf is relatively young, it is still very hot and likely bombards the planet with energy that strips away its outer material. This could lead to the formation of a comet-like tail of material that would form a disk around the white dwarf and fall back onto its surface, allowing the Hubble Space Telescope to detect niobium while studying the star. Despite this mass loss, Williams said the planet is likely not a temporary phenomenon on space radar.<\/span><\/p>\n

“If a second-generation planet exists, I think it would likely survive. Eventually, the white dwarf would cool and then maintain a constant temperature, and the planet would remain in its stable habitable zone for millions of years,” Williams said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Williams added that much work remains to be done to understand these types of systems\u2014how second-generation planets form, how common or rare they are, and how they evolve in orbit around a “dead” star. He will use the Hubble Space Telescope to study these questions over the next few years, hoping to gather significant data and statistics on these new types of celestial bodies.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I think this study is an important example of how scientific discovery isn’t a linear process,” Gensicke said. “It often requires that magical moment when people discuss questions that matter to them and realize that together they can find unexpected answers.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for more than three decades and continues to make groundbreaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is an international collaboration between NASA and ESA (the European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space also provides mission operations support at Goddard. The Space Telescope Research Institute in Baltimore, managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scientists believe that some white dwarf systems that absorb matter from companion stars may eventually explode as a supernova\u2014called a Type Ia supernova\u2014which is crucial for measuring the expansion of the Universe. These supernovae played a key role in the discovery that this expansion is accelerating. Astronomers have been searching for stars that become Type Ia supernovae for years, but so far without success.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, scientists have discovered a new class of objects that behave differently from anything previously observed. Astronomers speculate that these newly discovered objects in other galaxies could help resolve not one, but two long-standing questions in astrophysics, according to NASA’s press service.<\/span><\/p>\n

These mysterious objects emit unusually low-energy X-rays but intense ultraviolet radiation. This discovery was reported in a paper published in September 2026 in the journal Nature Astronomy.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

“We’ve never encountered a group of objects behaving like this before,” said Mustafa Muhibullah of the University of Alabama, who led the study. “Of course, the next step was to try to figure out what these objects were.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The researchers discovered a total of 84 such “hypersoft X-ray sources”\u2014so named for the low energy of their X-rays\u2014in six different galaxies they examined using data publicly available in the Chandra archive. Two of these galaxies are spiral galaxies, M31 (the Andromeda Galaxy) and M101 (the Pinwheel Galaxy), and the other four are elliptical. They found hypersoft X-ray sources both in regions of active star formation and in regions hosting older stars.<\/span><\/p>\n

A team of researchers discovered the sources by finding objects that appeared in Chandra images taken at the lowest X-ray energies but disappeared in images taken at higher energies. This means these objects emit significantly more low-energy X-rays than high-energy X-rays. Because low-energy X-rays border high-energy ultraviolet radiation in the electromagnetic spectrum, the researchers determined that these sources also produce large amounts of high-energy ultraviolet radiation.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nIn this image of M101, seven newly discovered objects are circled. This release features a composite image of the spiral galaxy M101, one of six galaxies identified to host a new class of enigmatic objects emitting unusually low-energy X-rays. In this composite image, M101 is facing us head-on. It features multiple purple arms spiraling clockwise around a golden-yellow core. Scattered along and between the arms are dozens of tiny white and purple dots. Most of these dots are pairs of stars, but seven remain a mystery. To the uninitiated, these unusual objects are visually indistinguishable from other points of light in the galaxy. This release includes an annotated version of the composite image, with the enigmatic dots circled in red for easy identification. These enigmatic objects behave unlike any other previously discovered objects. These curious objects emit X-rays at such low energies that they actually produce large amounts of ultraviolet radiation, since UV radiation is on the edge of X-rays in the electromagnetic spectrum. By studying images of galaxies with low-energy X-rays in the Chandra Observatory archive, scientists discovered a total of 84 such objects located in the galaxy M101 and five other galaxies. They dubbed these enigmatic objects “ultra-soft X-ray sources.” NASA\/CXC\/Univ. of Alabama\/M. Muhibullah et al.; Optics: NASA\/ESA\/STScI; Imaging: NASA\/CXC\/SAO\/N. Volk<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

It’s unclear which objects are responsible for this low-energy X-ray emission and intense ultraviolet radiation. The research team believes it’s most likely a black hole, neutron star, or white dwarf star plundering material from a companion star. The plundered material heats up, emitting X-rays, before falling onto the white dwarf or neutron star, or into the black hole. Similar binary systems have been observed before, but not with such bright ultraviolet radiation and low-energy X-rays.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scientists believe that some white dwarf systems that absorb matter from companion stars may eventually explode as a supernova\u2014called a Type Ia supernova\u2014which is crucial for measuring the expansion of the Universe. These supernovae played a key role in the discovery that this expansion is accelerating. Astronomers have been searching for stars that become Type Ia supernovae for years, but so far without success.<\/span><\/p>\n

This discovery suggests that there may be large populations of high-energy ultraviolet binary systems that have remained undetected until now.<\/span><\/p>\n

“These hidden X-ray sources are actually some of the most energetic objects in galaxies, and they may be solving two cosmic mysteries at once,” Muhibullah said.<\/span><\/p>\n

“If we could find a way to detect these Type Ia supernova explosions before they happen, that would be really important,” said co-author Jimmy Irwin, also of the University of Alabama. “Right now, we’re studying them after the explosion, and astronomers are struggling to understand what exactly is igniting.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Another mystery these ultra-soft X-ray sources may explain is what strips electrons from the gas between stars in some galaxies. Studying this electron stripping process is important because it may influence star formation rates and the life cycles of galaxies. Hot, massive stars play a role, but they don’t fully explain the cause of this process. Intense ultraviolet radiation from ultra-soft X-ray sources may play a vital role.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why haven’t these ultra-soft X-ray sources been detected until now? In addition to low-energy X-rays, which are very difficult to detect with X-ray telescopes, high-energy ultraviolet radiation is easily absorbed by the helium and hydrogen that fill the space between stars, creating a virtually impenetrable barrier to observation.<\/span><\/p>\n

“By carefully combing through the Chandra archive, we’ve been able to eliminate what was previously a telescope blind spot,” said co-author Rosanna Di Stefano of the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard and the Smithsonian Institutions. “This has revealed what appears to be a new class of cosmic objects with remarkable properties.”<\/span><\/p>\n

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Radiology Center oversees science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/i> Comment on Facebook* The owner of the Meta company is recognized as extremist in Russia and is banned.<\/span><\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Astronomers, revisiting observations made decades ago with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, have discovered an unexpected chemical signature around a white dwarf: niobium, a heavy element formed during the final stages of the star’s life. Combined with observations from other NASA missions, these data point to an intriguing possibility: a Jupiter-sized world may have formed from material ejected during the star’s death. If confirmed, this “second-generation planet” could demonstrate that a star’s death doesn’t always mean the end of its planetary system. Sometimes, it can be the beginning of a new one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2407,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[545,40],"tags":[1046,758,1045,1047],"class_list":{"0":"post-2406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-deepspace","8":"category-kosmos","9":"tag-niobium","10":"tag-planet","11":"tag-white-dwarf","12":"tag-x-ray-radiation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2406"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2409,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2406\/revisions\/2409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}