Stellar corpses are supposed to cool, fade, and mind their own business. Yet a new climate‑modeling study hints that some of these faint objects – white dwarfs – could keep nearby planets toasty enough for liquid water to exist.
That possibility expands the hunting ground for habitable worlds by billions of targets and challenges the old idea that life can flourish only around stars that are very much alive.
Today’s tools make that hunt more than wishful thinking. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has already glimpsed gas‑giant candidates circling white dwarfs, proving that planets can survive their star’s violent endgame.
