---
title: "These Are the Planets That Survive the Deaths of Their Stars"
description: "Small, densely-packed exoplanets are most likely to survive when their stars die. The findings give astronomers new places to look for new planets."
date: "2019-05-16"
modified: "2019-05-16"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/planets-survive-deaths-stars"
categories:
  - "Off-World"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "Exoplanets"
  - "space"
  - "stars"
  - "the digest"
---

# These Are the Planets That Survive the Deaths of Their Stars

![Small, densely-packed exoplanets are most likely to survive when their stars die. The findings give astronomers new places to look for new planets.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/planets-survive-deaths-stars.png>)
*\<em\>Image: CfA/Mark A. Garlick\</em\>*

## Lonely Planet

When stars explode and die, they tend to swallow and incinerate everything around them. But sometimes exoplanets survive, left to drift the galaxy as celestial orphans.

Now, a team of astronomers from the U.S. and Europe determined which planets are most likely to survive the deaths of the white dwarf stars they orbit, [according to research](<https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article-abstract/486/3/3831/5482390?redirectedFrom=fulltext>) published in the journal *Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society*. Small, dense, and distant exoplanets have the best odds, according to the research, which could help astronomers [pinpoint even more planets](<https://futurism.com/planets-dont-orbit-stars>) in the remote cosmos.

## Celestial Orphans

The scientists simulated these destructive events and found a direct link between survival and exoplanet size and density. The big, loosely-packed units of the pack were obliterated by their dying stars while the tiny, dense exoplanets survived, as long as they were orbiting at least one-third as far from their stars as Mercury is from the Sun.

"Our study prompts astronomers to look for rocky planets close to — but just outside of — the destruction radius of the white dwarf," University of Warwick physicist Dimitri Veras said in a [university-published press release](<https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190514115831.htm>). "So far observations have focused on this inner region, but our study demonstrates that rocky planets can survive tidal interactions with the white dwarf in a way which pushes the planets slightly outward."

**READ MORE:** [Small, hardy planets most likely to survive death of their stars](<https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190514115831.htm>) \[University of Warwick newsroom via *ScienceDaily*\]

**More on exoplanets:** *[These Lonely Planets Drift Through Space Without Orbiting Stars](<https://futurism.com/planets-dont-orbit-stars>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)