An international team of astronomers has reported what may be the first example of an intact planet closely orbiting a white dwarf, a dense leftover of a Sun-like star that’s only 40% bigger than Earth. The detection of the Jupiter-size body was made using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and retired Spitzer Space Telescope.

Read more: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-missions-spy-first-possible-survivor-planet-hugging-white-dwarf-star

The object, called WD 1856 b, is about seven times larger than the white dwarf. Based on the object’s size, astronomers think it’s a giant gaseous planet, which future observations and research may confirm. They also estimate it’s no more than 14 times Jupiter’s mass. The potential world circles the white dwarf every 34 hours, over 60 times faster than Mercury orbits our Sun.

The system may have looked very different prior to 6 billion years ago, though. When a Sun-like star runs out of fuel, it swells up to hundreds to thousands of times…