Searching for planets around nearby stars is like searching for a needle in a field of haystacks. Trevor Dobson/Flikr

How we found a white dwarf – a stellar corpse – by accident

Science is full of surprises. While searching for planets orbiting nearby stars, researchers stumbled across the remains of a star that once outshone the Sun.
An artist’s impression of the exoplanet in close orbit to a star. ESA, NASA, G. Tinetti (University College London, UK & ESA) and M. Kornmesser (ESA/Hubble)

We’ve found an exo‑planet with an extraordinarily eccentric orbit

A solitary planet in an eccentric orbit around an ancient star may help astronomers understand exactly how such planetary systems are formed.

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