LONDON — Astronomers have found a "phoenix planet" — a world born from the ashes of a dying star that now orbits the white dwarf remnant left behind — the first planet ever seen forming around such a stellar corpse, Reuters reported on October 6, 2026, citing a study in Nature Astronomy.
Illustration: A gas giant planet orbiting close to a blazing white dwarf star. The white dwarf's radiation is evaporating the planet's outer atmosphere. (AI-generated illustration)
What Happened
The planet orbits a white dwarf about 250 light-years from Earth, near the constellation Cetus, and is a gas giant perhaps slightly more massive than Jupiter. It circles its star every 4.4 days at just 4% of the distance between Earth and the sun. It sits so close that the blazingly hot white dwarf's extreme ultraviolet radiation is causing the planet's outer atmosphere to evaporate, with a portion of that gas then falling back into the white dwarf, the researchers said.
"This is the first example of a planet forming around a white dwarf," said Jamie Williams, a doctoral student in astrophysics at the University of Warwick in England and lead author of the study. What makes it a second-generation planet is its origin: rather than forming from the disk of material around a newborn star, as Earth did, it appears to have formed from material expelled into space during the death throes of a star a bit bigger than the sun — reborn, like the mythical phoenix, from its star's ashes.
The chemical evidence is what convinced the team. The planet's atmosphere is rich in niobium, copper and zinc — the type of elements certain dying stars cast off when they expand in their final stages. That pattern indicates the planet formed from a disk of expelled material that surrounded the stellar corpse, the researchers explained.
Background
White dwarfs are the compact remnants left when stars like the sun exhaust their fuel and shed their outer layers — over 95% of stars in the Milky Way will end their lives this way. Until now, no planet had been confirmed to form around one after its star's death, though a small number of potential second-generation planets have been identified orbiting pulsars, a far rarer type of remnant.
The researchers reached their conclusion using data from the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA's TESS planet hunter and the FUSE ultraviolet observatory, and they hope to use the James Webb Space Telescope to confirm the findings. A second study published in the same issue of Nature Astronomy, using the Zwicky Transient Facility at Palomar Observatory in California, described another first: a red dwarf star with only about 8% of the sun's mass locked in an extremely tight orbit with a brown dwarf — an object too small to be a star and too big to be a planet, about 30 times the mass of Jupiter.
In that second system, roughly 300 to 500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus, the two companions orbit each other every 87 minutes — so close that, in the words of lead author Aaron Householder, an MIT graduate student in astrophysics, "the entire orbit would fit inside the sun." The star's gravity appears to be siphoning material from the brown dwarf, creating a hot spot on the star's surface where the stolen material lands — the first observed example of the phenomenon.
Illustration: A red dwarf star and a brown dwarf in an extremely tight orbit. The star is siphoning material from its companion — the first observed case of its kind. (AI-generated illustration)
Why It Matters
The phoenix planet rewrites the rulebook on where planets can form. Planetary birth was long thought to belong to the early life of stars; a planet condensing from the debris of a dead star shows the process can run in reverse — worlds can be born at the end of a star's life, not just at its beginning. Because white dwarfs are far more common than pulsars, Williams noted, there are likely many more second-generation planets around white dwarfs waiting to be found.
The discovery also carries a tantalizing implication for habitability. "If a gas giant formed around a white dwarf, then a rocky planet could form, too," Williams said. White dwarfs cool predictably over time, and as they get cooler their cooling slows — so a second-generation rocky planet forming close enough to a white dwarf could remain in its habitable zone for billions of years.
What Happens Next
Illustration: Space telescopes observing a distant star system. The phoenix-planet team used Hubble, TESS and FUSE data and hopes to confirm the findings with the James Webb Space Telescope. (AI-generated illustration)
The team plans to point the James Webb Space Telescope at the system to confirm the second-generation interpretation and probe the planet's atmosphere in greater detail. Surveys like TESS and ground-based facilities will continue hunting for more white-dwarf planets, which theory now suggests should be common.
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FAQ
What is a "phoenix planet"?
It is a second-generation planet — a world that formed not from the disk of material around a newborn star, like Earth, but from material expelled during the death of a star. The newly found planet orbits the white dwarf remnant of that dead star, about 250 light-years from Earth near the constellation Cetus.
Why do scientists think it is second-generation?
The planet's atmosphere is rich in niobium, copper and zinc, elements that certain dying stars cast off when they expand in their death throes. That chemical pattern, reported by Reuters, indicates the planet formed from a disk of the expelled material rather than from primordial stellar nursery gas.
Could a planet around a white dwarf support life?
Not this one — its atmosphere is being evaporated by the white dwarf's extreme ultraviolet radiation. But lead author Jamie Williams said a second-generation rocky planet forming close enough to a cooling white dwarf could stay in its habitable zone for billions of years, since white dwarfs cool slowly and predictably.
What did the second study find?
Using the Zwicky Transient Facility at Palomar Observatory, researchers found a red dwarf star (about 8% of the sun's mass) in an 87-minute orbit with a brown dwarf about 30 times the mass of Jupiter — so tight that the whole orbit would fit inside the sun. The star is siphoning material from the brown dwarf, creating a hot spot: the first observed example of the phenomenon.
What comes next for the research?
The phoenix-planet team hopes to use the James Webb Space Telescope to confirm their conclusions and study the atmosphere in detail. Broader surveys will search for more white-dwarf planets, which theory suggests should be abundant.
Sources
- Reuters, Oct 6, 2026 — "Alien 'phoenix planet' was born from the ashes of a dying star" (verified directly)
- Nature Astronomy, Oct 6, 2026 — study on the second-generation planet around a white dwarf, led by Jamie Williams, University of Warwick (via Reuters)
- Nature Astronomy, Oct 6, 2026 — study on the red dwarf–brown dwarf tight binary, led by Aaron Householder, MIT (via Reuters)
- The Register, Oct 6, 2026 — report on the planet's niobium-rich composition and Hubble observations
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