Jupiter might survive the sun's violent death. Earth will not.
In a distant corner of the galaxy, astronomers have found a Jupiter-like planet still orbiting the cooling remnant of a dead star — a discovery that quietly reframes humanity's understanding of its own cosmic fate. Published in Nature and drawn from observations at Hawaii's Keck Observatory, the finding suggests that the outer planets of our solar system may outlast the sun's eventual and violent death. Earth, orbiting too close, will not share that fortune. But the gas giants — and perhaps the civilizations wise enough to seek refuge among their moons — might endure into the long darkness that follows.
- A team led by University of Tasmania researcher Joshua Blackman has confirmed what was once only theorized: a gas giant can survive its star's catastrophic collapse into a white dwarf.
- The discovery sharpens a sobering truth — Earth sits well within the sun's future kill zone, and the red giant phase will likely reduce the inner solar system to ruin.
- Jupiter and Saturn, orbiting at safe distances, emerge from this research as potential survivors, their fates now supported by an observed analog system rather than speculation alone.
- Scientists are racing to understand whether such planetary escapes are rare exceptions or a common feature of stellar death, with a 2020 study already adding a second candidate to the record.
- The most urgent long-range implication points toward Jupiter's moon Europa — already targeted by NASA — as a possible refuge, though survival there would demand that humanity generate its own heat, light, and sustenance entirely independent of stellar warmth.
In five billion years, our sun will die violently — swelling into a red giant before collapsing into a cooling white dwarf. A team of astronomers has now found, in a distant system near the galactic center, a Jupiter-like planet still orbiting just such a stellar remnant. The discovery, published in Nature and made possible by the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, offers a rare window into what our own solar system might look like long after the sun's death.
Joshua Blackman of the University of Tasmania, who led the study, drew the parallel directly: if this distant system mirrors our own, then Jupiter and Saturn may well survive the sun's red giant phase, escaping the inferno that will consume everything closer in. Earth, orbiting too near, will not be spared — battered by radiation and likely destroyed entirely as the inner solar system becomes a graveyard.
The question that follows is one that straddles science and survival: where could humanity go? Co-author David Bennett of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has pointed toward the moons of Jupiter and Saturn as candidates for refuge. Europa, with its subsurface ocean hidden beneath a shell of ice, is already the destination of an upcoming NASA mission. But life — or civilization — on such a moon would be austere. A white dwarf provides little warmth, and any survivors would need to generate their own energy entirely.
Other research supports the idea that planetary survival is not a fluke. A 2020 study documented another giant planet that escaped its star's death, and scientists are still working to determine how common such outcomes are. What the evidence now makes clear is that it is possible — that the universe has shown us gas giants can endure. Whether humanity will be present, on some frozen moon, to witness our own sun's final cooling, remains the deeper and more uncertain question.
In five billion years, our sun will die. Not quietly, but violently—swelling into a red giant that will scorch the inner planets and render Earth a cinder. But what happens to the outer reaches of our solar system? A team of astronomers studying a distant star system near the galactic center has found an answer that offers both reassurance and a sobering reminder of deep time.
They discovered a Jupiter-like planet orbiting what remains of a dead star—a white dwarf, the cooling ember left behind after a star's catastrophic collapse. The finding, published in Nature, came through observations made with the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. What makes this discovery significant is not the planet itself, but what it tells us about our own cosmic future. If this distant system is any guide, Jupiter and Saturn might actually survive the sun's death throes, even as everything closer to the sun is obliterated.
Joshua Blackman, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tasmania who led the study, put it plainly: planets that orbit far enough from their star can endure even after that star dies. "Given that this system is an analog to our own solar system, it suggests that Jupiter and Saturn might survive the sun's red giant phase, when it runs out of nuclear fuel and self-destructs." The mechanism is straightforward physics. When a star expands into its red giant phase—what NASA describes as typically the most violent period in a star's life—it engulfs everything nearby. But planets in distant orbits, beyond a certain threshold, escape the inferno. They remain intact as their star collapses into a white dwarf and slowly cools into darkness.
Earth, of course, will not be so fortunate. Our planet orbits too close to the sun. During the red giant phase, it will be battered by radiation and likely destroyed entirely. The inner solar system will become a graveyard. But the gas giants, those distant wanderers, have a chance.
This raises a question that sounds like science fiction but is worth asking seriously: where might humanity go? David Bennett, a co-author from the University of Maryland and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, has suggested that the moons of Jupiter and Saturn deserve consideration as potential refuges. Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, is already the target of an upcoming NASA mission. It harbors a subsurface ocean beneath its icy crust—a place where life might exist, or where humans might one day seek shelter.
But survival on Jupiter's moons would come with its own challenges. A white dwarf star, while still present, provides far less heat than our current sun. Humanity could not rely on stellar warmth for energy. Any civilization attempting to survive in such a system would need to generate its own heat, its own light, its own sustenance. It is a vision of existence stripped down to its essentials.
Other recent research supports the possibility that planetary survival is not rare. A 2020 study documented another giant planet that managed to dodge destruction by its own star. Scientists are still working to understand how common such escapes actually are—whether survival is the exception or the rule. What seems clear is that it happens, that it is possible, that the universe has shown us at least one example of a gas giant enduring the death of its star.
Our sun's demise is not an immediate concern. We have billions of years. But the discovery offers a strange kind of comfort: the solar system we know may not vanish entirely. Some part of it—the distant, cold, austere part—might persist. Whether humanity will be there to witness it is another question entirely.
Citações Notáveis
Planets orbiting at a large enough distance can continue to exist after their star's death, suggesting Jupiter and Saturn might survive the sun's red giant phase.— Joshua Blackman, lead researcher, University of Tasmania
We would not be able to rely on heat from the sun as a white dwarf for very long.— David Bennett, University of Maryland and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
So this planet orbiting a dead star—how do we even know it's there? It's not like we can see it glowing.
They used gravitational microlensing. The white dwarf's gravity bends light from a distant star behind it, and the planet's gravity creates a detectable wobble in that light pattern. It's indirect, but it works.
And this matters because it's like our Jupiter?
Exactly. Same type of planet, same kind of orbit relative to its dead star. It's a mirror. If Jupiter survived there, it suggests Jupiter could survive here.
But Earth doesn't survive. Why the difference?
Distance. When the sun expands as a red giant, it will engulf everything close in. Earth is too near. Jupiter orbits far enough out that it escapes the heat and the chaos.
So in five billion years, Jupiter just... keeps going?
If the pattern holds, yes. It keeps orbiting a cooling white dwarf in an increasingly cold, dark solar system. The question is whether anything alive will be there to see it.
Europa, then. That's the real story.
That's where the thinking gets interesting. If we're still around, if we've learned to live off the heat of the planet itself rather than the sun, Jupiter's moons become less a fantasy and more a necessity.
How long do we have to figure that out?
Five billion years. Which sounds like forever until you realize it's not.