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Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

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Astronomers Find a World That May Have Been Reborn From Its Star’s Ashes

Imagine a star reaching the end of its life, shedding much of its material into space—and then, from those leftovers, a completely new planet begins to form.

Astronomers may have found exactly such a remarkable world.

A team led by researchers at the University of Warwick has identified what could be the first known second-generation planet orbiting a white dwarf. Unlike ordinary planets, which form alongside their stars when a planetary system is young, this unusual planet appears to have formed after its original star died, using material expelled during the star’s final stages.

If confirmed, the discovery could fundamentally change our understanding of how planets can form and survive around dying stars.

A Planet Born After Its Star Died

Most planets we know about are called first-generation planets. They form from a disk of gas and dust surrounding a young star. Over millions of years, this material gradually comes together to create planets, moons, asteroids and other objects.

But stars do not live forever.

When a star similar to the Sun reaches the end of its life, it expands dramatically before eventually losing its outer layers. What remains is a white dwarf—an extremely dense stellar remnant containing much of the star's original mass in a relatively small object.

The material released during this process normally spreads into space.

However, scientists believe that in unusual circumstances, some of this material could remain gravitationally bound to the system and form a new disk. Given enough material and the right conditions, a planet might eventually develop from that disk.

Such a world would effectively be a second-generation planet.

“This is a bit like finding a planet that has risen from the ashes of the very star it once orbited,” explained Jamie Williams, a Ph.D. student at the University of Warwick and the study’s first author.

The Chemical Clues Were the Biggest Mystery

The strongest evidence came not from seeing the planet directly, but from studying the chemical composition of its host star.

The white dwarf in question is called HS 0209+0832. Like many white dwarfs, it is capable of pulling material from objects orbiting nearby. When that material falls onto the white dwarf, scientists can analyze the elements present in its atmosphere.

Normally, such observations reveal familiar rock-forming elements such as silicon and iron.

But HS 0209+0832 showed something highly unusual.

Its atmosphere contained extremely high amounts of heavy elements, including zinc, copper and niobium. Most strikingly, niobium was detected at levels more than 1,000 times higher than in the Sun.

This was an important clue because these elements are associated with nuclear processes that occur inside stars during their later stages of evolution.

In particular, the researchers identified a chemical pattern linked to the s-process, or slow neutron-capture process. This process produces many heavy elements inside aging stars during their swollen red giant phase.

According to the researchers, an ordinary planet formed when the star was young should not have this particular chemical signature.

That suggested something unusual had happened.

Material From the Star’s Death May Have Built the Planet

Scientists propose that the white dwarf may now be feeding on material coming from a newly formed giant planet.

The idea is remarkable: during the star's death, it expelled material enriched with heavy elements. Instead of simply escaping into space, some of that material may have formed a new disk around the stellar remnant.

A planet could then have condensed from this disk.

Because the disk would have been made from material released by the dying star, the resulting planet would naturally contain the unusual elements created during the star’s final stages.

This could explain why the white dwarf’s atmosphere contains such an unusual chemical mixture.

But there is an important challenge.

How Could a New Planetary Disk Form?

A dying star generally releases material outward in a relatively symmetrical way. For a planet-forming disk to develop, some of that material would need to remain in orbit rather than simply drifting away.

The researchers suggest that a companion star may have played an important role.

Its gravity could have interacted with the material being expelled by HS 0209+0832, helping pull some of it back into orbit. Over time, this material could have created the disk necessary for a new planet to form.

This could also help explain why second-generation planets appear to be extremely rare.

The conditions needed to create them may occur only in special stellar systems.

TESS Found a Repeating 4.4-Day Signal

Another important piece of evidence came from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).

Researchers detected a faint but regular change in brightness associated with the system. The signal repeated approximately every 4.4 days.

The timing is consistent with a large planet orbiting extremely close to its white dwarf host.

The researchers suggest the object could be roughly Jupiter-sized and may be tidally locked, meaning the same side could permanently face the white dwarf.

But the environment would be extraordinarily harsh.

Because the planet is so close to the hot stellar remnant, intense radiation could be stripping material from its outer atmosphere. Some of this escaping material may eventually fall onto the white dwarf.

That process could provide a direct explanation for the unusual chemical elements detected in the white dwarf’s atmosphere.

In other words, astronomers may be seeing the chemical fingerprints of a planet actively losing material to its dead star.

A New Way to Search for “Reborn” Worlds

The discovery is still described as a planet candidate, meaning further observations are needed to establish its nature with greater certainty.

But if the interpretation is confirmed, HS 0209+0832 would become the first known white dwarf system hosting a second-generation planet.

More importantly, it would give astronomers a new method for finding similar worlds.

Instead of searching only for planets around young stars, scientists could examine white dwarfs for unusual combinations of heavy elements. If the same chemical signatures appear repeatedly, they could point toward previously unknown populations of second-generation planets.

This could reveal that planetary systems are not necessarily finished when their stars die.

Could Our Sun Also Give Birth to a New Planet?

The discovery raises an extraordinary question: could our own Solar System someday produce a second-generation planet?

Billions of years from now, the Sun is expected to evolve into a red giant before eventually becoming a white dwarf. During that transformation, it will lose its outer layers and dramatically reshape the Solar System.

Whether the expelled material could form a new planet would depend on many factors, including how much material remains gravitationally bound and whether a suitable disk can develop.

So there is no evidence that a second-generation planet will actually form around our future Sun.

Still, the possibility is fascinating.

The potential “Phoenix planet” around HS 0209+0832 suggests that planetary birth may not be limited to the early stages of a star’s life. Under the right circumstances, the death of a star could provide the raw materials for the birth of a new world.

In that sense, the universe may have an extraordinary cycle: stars create the elements needed for planets, planets emerge from those elements, and when stars die, their remains may—under rare conditions—become the foundation for another generation of worlds.

Reference: Williams, J.T., Gänsicke, B.T., Stone, N.C. et al. Discovery of a second-generation planet candidate accreting onto a white dwarf. Nat Astron (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-026-02983-7

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