Astronomers’ recent discoveries never cease to amaze us, ordinary citizens, as well as NASA scientists themselves. This time, they found a type of frozen sphere in a place called a forbidden zone that, as the name suggests, should not be there – in fact, due to the conditions of the region, it should not even be there.
What is this frozen sphere, and why shouldn’t it be there?
Before we talk about this sphere itself, we need to understand what is so surprising about this discovery. So, let’s start with the place where it was found: the forbidden zone.
The forbidden zone is a region around stars that are going through the red giant phase, which is when the star expands and ends up destroying everything around it. To be more precise, the destruction can reach a radius of two astronomical units (AU), according to experts.
Scientists have theories about how this new planet came to reach its current position in the solar system
In other words, finding any celestial body in this region is practically impossible, so it’s no wonder that scientists give the following fates to whoever (or whatever) is in the forbidden zone:
- Being swallowed by the expansion of the red giant;
- Being disintegrated by tidal forces;
- Being roasted by the intense heat and radiation;
- Or being ejected from its orbit due to the loss of mass from the parent star.
Well, these are not very favorable destinations… that’s why NASA was surprised when it discovered that this frozen sphere was, in fact, a planet. Here’s some information about it: it’s a white dwarf, it’s 5.8 billion years old, it’s been nicknamed “WD 1856+534” and it’s only 82 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Draco.
With all these conditions, how did this planet survive?
There is still no concrete answer to this question, but scientists believe that the main reason for the planet’s survival is that it was not in this region originally.
The main hypothesis is that WD 1856+534 was initially in a more distant orbit, and what caused it to end up in the forbidden zone may have been the gravitational influence of another planet or star.
It’s not just where the planet is that’s impressive, its temperature is also striking
In addition to being in a place where it shouldn’t be possible, this frozen sphere, now being described as an actual planet, is now the coldest object whose light has ever been directly observed. There are other exoplanets out there with even lower temperatures, but this white dwarf was the only one to have been observed directly. And this was only possible because they managed to capture the infrared light reflected by the object itself.
Okay, but what is the surface temperature of this planet? Measurements made by the James Webb Space Telescope revealed about -125ºF.
Another surprise: This planet is an incredible 13.8 times the mass of Jupiter
And did you think the surprises would end with the planet’s temperature? Not at all. Another issue that also draws attention is its size. Scientists have announced that the estimated mass of this sphere is approximately 13.8 times that of Jupiter.
Just to give you an idea, Jupiter alone is already 2.5 times more massive than all the other planets in our solar system combined.
It turns out that planets can appear exactly where they shouldn’t be. This one didn’t just survive the chaos of a dying star—it found its way to the zone where nothing should last.
And here’s the kicker: it’s not alone. Another planet was recently discovered that’s so unusual that scientists are simply calling it something that “shouldn’t exist”.
