On September 27, 2024, astronomers using the 10-meter Keck Telescope in Hawaii announced the discovery of an Earth-like planet orbiting the white dwarf VVV, located approximately 4,000 light-years from Earth. This finding sheds light on the potential fate of our own planet as the Sun evolves into a white dwarf in billions of years.
The white dwarf has about half the mass of our Sun and is orbited by a planet with a mass similar to Earth's, at a distance between one and two astronomical units (AU), roughly double the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Additionally, the system contains another planet, likely a brown dwarf, with 16 times the mass of Jupiter.
This discovery implies that planets may survive the red giant phase of their host stars, raising questions about the future habitability of Earth. Current models suggest that our planet could remain habitable for about one billion more years before extreme greenhouse effects render it uninhabitable, long before the Sun expands into a red giant.
The research team, led by Keming Zhang from the University of California, Berkeley, utilized gravitational microlensing techniques to identify the system, which was previously obscured. Their observations indicate that this Earth-like planet has managed to endure in an environment that may not support life.
Jessica Lu, an astronomer involved in the study, emphasized that while the fate of Earth remains uncertain, this discovery offers hope that not all planets will be consumed by their expanding stars.