Monday, October 12, 2026

Hubble Spots a Suspected Second-Generation Planet

This artist’s concept imagines the evolution of a Sun-like star (1) into an aging red giant (2) and then a small, bright white dwarf surrounded by a disk of its expelled outer layers (3), from which a second-generation planet forms (4). Credit: NASA/ESA/Leah Hustak (STScI)

Diligent sleuthing by astronomers has broken open a cold case in the data archive of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. In a study published Monday in Nature Astronomy, researchers report uncovering a surprising chemical clue that indicates the white dwarf star HS 0209+0832 may host a second-generation planet.



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