NASA/ESA telescope captures strange X-rays from 3 'hell' planets

NASA's Chandra X-ray Telescope and ESA's XMM-Newton satellite investigated anomalous X-ray activity from three white dwarfs and discovered three objects that were planets or companions it hid.

White dwarfs - the "dead bodies" of massive Sun-like stars - usually emit low-energy X-rays, but NASA and ESA telescopes have discovered unusually powerful X-ray sources from 3 worlds are KPD 0005+5106, PG 1159-035 and WD 0121-756.

Graphic image depicting a white dwarf star and its companion Jupiter-like planet - (Image: NASA/ESA/You-Hua Chu)

According to Sci-News, the most prominent of this group is KPD 0005+5106, which emits high-energy X-rays that regularly increase and decrease in brightness every 4.7 hours. This indicates that there must be an object orbiting its orbit. According to Dr. You-Hua Chu from the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics of Sinica Academy (Taiwan), a member of the research team, it must be a Jupiter-like planet or a small star.

Matter from this mysterious planet can collide with the North and South poles of the white dwarf because it is attracted to the white dwarf, thereby creating an X-ray glowing spot.

Planets - or minor stars - that accompany white dwarfs would be "hell", uninhabitable and very bad worlds because white dwarfs often act like a vampire, constantly sucks matter from your companion until they both explode.

The findings suggest, once again, that the death of a star may not be the end for the planets around it, or for its binary companion. The companion will still exist even in the state of being "cannibalized" often.

The study has just been published in the Astrophysical Journal.