Exoplanets That Survived Their Star's Death Found

The NASA Kepler Telescope discovered two extrasolar planets, called KOI 55.01 and KOI 55.02, which orbit in very close orbit around their star, a hot B subdwarf. What is remarkable about these findings is that the stellar object passed its red giant phase.

This means that the star at one point began swelling up, swallowing these worlds inside its atmosphere. Previously, scientists believed that no object could escape the intense heat, but apparently, that was not the case. The worlds are now orbiting around their diminished parent in very tight orbits.

According to the team that found the planet, the two were most likely gas giants before their star increased in size. The encounter stripped them of their gas and left only their solid cores behind, but the star did not escape undamaged either.

“As the star puffs up and engulfs the planet, the planet has to plow through the star's hot atmosphere and that causes friction, sending it spiraling toward the star. As it's doing that, it helps strip atmosphere off the star,” Space quotes University of Arizona expert and study coauthor Betsy Green as saying.