Andrew Vanderburg at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who led the study, said in a statement: WD 1856 b somehow got very close to its white dwarf and managed to stay in one piece. The white dwarf creation process destroys nearby planets, and anything that later gets too close is usually torn apart by the star’s immense gravity. We still have many questions about how WD 1856 b arrived at its current location without meeting one of those fates.
Office of Strategic Communication