Researchers found an unusual amount of the chemical element niobium, which suggests that the planet may have formed from material released by the dying star, according to NASA . The discovery was made by studying old data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Astronomers have discovered evidence that a white dwarf star named HS 0209+0832 may have a second-generation planet orbiting it.
Jamie Williams, the lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, studied the records again using an updated chemical database. Their presence can indicate that a star has released its inner material into space. He found that niobium matched many of the unidentified features. Williams explained that the discovery points to the possibility that planets can form even after a star reaches the end of its life. Nicholas Stone, a theoretical astrophysicist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a member of the research team, explained that niobium and other elements heavier than iron are formed under unusual conditions inside dying stars. The research team checked Hubble’s findings using data from NASA’s retired Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) mission. These observations also showed strong signs of niobium in the system.
When Hubble first observed the star in 1999, its data contained around 100 unidentified chemical features.
