00:00Our Sun is expected to start dying in a few billion years, so not immediately concerning
00:07to anyone living today. But for the future of humanity, it might be an issue. As a star like
00:12ours goes into its death throes, it will eventually become a red giant and expand out into its system,
00:17gobbling up the planets in close proximity. But recently astronomers discovered a Jupiter-sized
00:22planet orbiting a white dwarf, or a planet-sized star that has already gone through the red giant
00:27phase and no longer has a fusion reaction as its energy source. Meaning, under just the right
00:31circumstances, a star like our Sun could still support life even after it's technically dead.
00:36White dwarfs, which are around the size of Earth, aren't just small and dense. They're also quite
00:40stable and stick around for a long time. Meaning, despite their Goldilocks zone being much smaller,
00:45they still have an area around them in which they could support life. So far, astronomers have only
00:49discovered a Jupiter-sized planet still intact orbiting a white dwarf star. And experts say
00:54that planets of that size are likely quite rare. Meaning, that could be one of the reasons they
00:58survived the white dwarf phase in the first place. With the researchers adding, this is actually a
01:02fairly easy hypothesis to test, since we already know where to look.
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