{
  "id": 18699217,
  "title": "Astronomers spot white dwarf star with 2 rings of planetary debris",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/07/astronomers-spot-white-dwarf-star-with-2-rings-of-planetary-debris",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-11-07T10:42:27.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Free Malaysia Today",
    "slug": "free-malaysia-today",
    "url": "https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/world/2026/11/07/astronomers-spot-white-dwarf-star-with-2-rings-of-planetary-debris"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Astronomers have discovered a white dwarf star, named J1328−1450, located in the Virgo constellation, approximately 1,600 light-years away from Earth. This white dwarf, which has a mass about 47% that of the sun, is surrounded by an unusual ring-like structure of planetary debris. The researchers, including Felipe Lagos-Vilches of Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María in Chile, believe that the rings may consist of two distinct rings resulting from the remnants of two planetary or smaller rocky bodies that survived the white dwarf's violent death throes.\n\nThe discovery, made using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, contrasts with the previously observed single debris disc around white dwarfs. This finding suggests that the remnants of planetary systems can have a more complex structure than previously thought, offering support to the idea that certain rocky bodies may survive the transformation of a star into a white dwarf.\n\nAccording to the study published in Nature Astronomy, the white dwarf could have once hosted a planetary system that expanded dramatically into a red giant, engulfing some inner planets while allowing others with more distant orbits to survive. The surviving rocky bodies may have been gravitationally perturbed onto highly eccentric orbits, bringing them close to the white dwarf and dispersing their material into a debris disc.\n\nThe presence of the two rings in the debris disc has led researchers to speculate that two relatively large rocky bodies may have survived within the disc. The outer ring is significantly depleted in magnesium compared to the inner ring, indicating that the debris may originate from different parent bodies or layers of a disrupted rocky body.\n\nIn about 5 billion years, the sun is expected to become a red giant, engulfing the inner solar system, including Mercury and Venus, while Jupiter, Saturn, and more distant planets are likely to survive. Eventually, the sun will shed its outer layers, leaving behind a white dwarf similar to J1328−1450. A debris disc like the one around this white dwarf could represent one possible future stage for our own solar system, illustrating the complex fate of surviving planetary remnants, moons, and asteroids drawn close enough to the white dwarf to be torn apart by its gravitational forces.",
  "summary": "Researchers said the disc may have been shaped by two planets or smaller rocky bodies embedded in its rings that survived the star's violent death.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "CNA - Business",
        "title": "Astronomers spot white dwarf star with two rings of planetary debris",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/07/astronomers-spot-white-dwarf-star-with-two-rings-of-planetary-debris",
        "published": "2026-11-07T10:01:21.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}