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Related papers: A Giant Planet Candidate Transiting a White Dwarf

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WD 1856+534 b is a Jupiter-sized, cool giant planet candidate transiting the white dwarf WD 1856+534. Here, we report an optical transmission spectrum of WD 1856+534 b obtained from ten transits using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph.…

The evolution of planetary systems around white dwarfs is crucial to understanding the presence of planetary material in the atmospheres of white dwarfs. These systems uniquely probe exoplanetary compositions. Periodic signals in the…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-06-26 Yuqi Li , Amy Bonsor , Oliver Shorttle , Laura K. Rogers

We report the detection of thermal emission from and confirm the planetary nature of WD 1856+534b, the first transiting planet known to orbit a white dwarf star. Observations with JWST's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) reveal excess…

Do white dwarfs host asteroid systems? Although several lines of argument suggest that white dwarfs may be orbited by large populations of asteroids, transits would provide the most direct evidence. We demonstrate that the Kepler mission…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2014-11-20 Rosanne Di Stefano , Steve B. Howell , Steven D. Kawaler

Identifying planets around O-type and B-type stars is inherently difficult; the most massive known planet host has a mass of only about $3M_{\odot}$. However, planetary systems which survive the transformation of their host stars into white…

Circumstellar disks of planetary debris are now known or suspected to closely orbit hundreds of white dwarf stars. To date, both data and theory support disks that are entirely contained within the preceding giant stellar radii, and hence…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2016-04-12 J. Farihi

We present new transit timing measurements for the white dwarf-cold Jupiter system WD 1856+534, extending the baseline of observations from 311 epochs to 1498 epochs. The planet is unlikely to have survived the host star's red-giant phase…

More than a decade after astronomers realized that disrupted planetary material likely pollutes the surfaces of many white dwarf stars, the discovery of transiting debris orbiting the white dwarf WD 1145+017 has opened the door to new…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2018-12-05 Andrew Vanderburg , Saul A. Rappaport

Asteroid material is detected in white dwarfs (WDs) as atmospheric pollution by metals, in the form of gas/dust discs, or in photometric transits. Within the current paradigm, minor bodies need to be scattered, most likely by planets, into…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2020-08-12 R. F. Maldonado , E. Villaver , A. J. Mustill , M. Chávez , E. Bertone

To date not a single-bona fide planet has been identified orbiting a single white dwarf. In fact we are ignorant about the final configuration of >95% of planetary systems. Theoretical models predict a gap in the final distribution of…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2014-12-11 Roberto Silvotti , Alessandro Sozzetti , Mario Lattanzi , Roberto Morbidelli

A significant fraction of the mature FGK stars have cool dusty disks at least an orders of magnitudes brighter than the solar system's outer zodiacal light. Since such dusts must be continually replenished, they are generally assumed to be…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-18 Ruobing Dong , Yan Wang , D. N. C. Lin , X. -W. Liu

With the first observations of debris disks as well as proposed planets around white dwarfs, the question of how rocky planets around such stellar remnants can be characterized and probed for signs of life becomes tangible. White dwarfs are…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2020-05-06 Thea Kozakis , Zifan Lin , Lisa Kaltenegger

We suggest that Jovian planets will survive the late stages of stellar evolution, and that white dwarfs will retain planetary systems in wide orbits (>5AU). Utilising evolutionary models for Jovian planets, we show that infra-red imaging…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-07 M. R. Burleigh , F. J. Clarke , S. T. Hodgkin

We present a search for eclipses of $\sim$1700 white dwarfs in the Pan-STARRS1 medium-deep fields. Candidate eclipse events are selected by identifying low outliers in over 4.3 million light curve measurements. We find no short-duration…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-23 B. J. Fulton , J. L. Tonry , H. Flewelling , W. S. Burgett , K. C. Chambers , K. W. Hodapp , M. E. Huber , N. Kaiser , R. J. Wainscoat , C. Waters

To date the search for habitable Earth-like planets has primarily focused on nuclear burning stars. I propose that this search should be expanded to cool white dwarf stars that have expended their nuclear fuel. I define the continuously…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2011-03-30 Eric Agol

We propose a common envelope evolution (CEE) scenario where a red giant branch (RGB) star engulfs a planet during its core helium flash to explain the puzzling system WD 1856+534 where a planet orbits a white dwarf (WD) of mass 0.52Mo with…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2021-07-21 Ariel Merlov , Ealeal Bear , Noam Soker

This paper investigates the frequency of transiting planetary systems around metal-polluted white dwarfs using high-cadence photometry from ULTRACAM and ULTRASPEC on the ground, and space-based observations with TESS. Within a sample of 313…

Although white dwarfs are believed to be the end point of most stellar evolution, unlike main sequence stars, they have not yet been the subject of dedicated time-domain surveys for exoplanets. We discuss how their size and distinctive…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2010-09-17 A. J. Drake , E. Beshore , M. Catelan , S. G. Djorgovski , M. J. Graham , S. J. Kleinman , S. Larson , A. Mahabal , R. Williams

White dwarf planetary science is a rapidly growing field of research featuring a diverse set of observations and theoretical explorations. Giant planets, minor planets, and debris discs have all been detected orbiting white dwarfs. The…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2021-11-17 Dimitri Veras

We present limits on planetary companions to pulsating white dwarf stars. A subset of these stars exhibit extreme stability in the period and phase of some of their pulsation modes; a planet can be detected around such a star by searching…