Jupiter-Sized Exoplanet Orbiting White Dwarf

Using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and several ground-based telescopes, astronomers have discovered a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting a nearby white dwarf star called WD 1856+534.

The WD 1856+534 system, also known as TIC 267574918 and LP 141-14, is located about 80 light-years away in the constellation of Draco.

The white dwarf is the remnant of a Sun-like star, greatly shrunken down to roughly the size of Earth, yet it retains half the Sun’s mass.

It is roughly 18,000 km (11,000 miles) across, at least 6 billion years old, and is a distant member of a triple star system.

The newfound massive planet is roughly the same size as Jupiter and is no more than 14 times as massive.

Named WD 1856+534b, it orbits the white dwarf once every 1.4 days, more than 60 times faster than Mercury orbits our Sun.

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Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

An artist’s impression of the potential Jupiter-size planet WD 1856+534b and its much smaller host star, a dim white dwarf.

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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.

Researchers using ESO's Very Large Telescope have, for the first time, found evidence of a giant planet associated with a white dwarf star.

The planet orbits the hot white dwarf, the remnant of a Sun-like star, at close range, causing its atmosphere to be stripped away and form a disc of gas around the star.