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Hubble Spectrum of White Dwarf HS 0209+0832

Line graph titled HS 0209+0832, White Dwarf Atmosphere Features. Hubble Space Telescope spectral data is shown in white, compared with a best fit model in red. The vertical y axis is labeled Brightness, with brighter at the top and dimmer at the bottom. The horizontal x axis is labeled Wavelength of light, angstroms. One-third of the way across the x axis is labeled 1452. To the right of the graph’s center is angstrom label 1453, and the right edge of the graph is labeled angstrom 1454. Three dramatic dips in the spectrum are labeled with element names and abbreviations: Niobium, Nb, Nickel, Ni, and Calcium, Ca. The niobium Hubble data and model match well and appear to the right of the 1452 angstrom label. To the right, Hubble’s nickel data is much dimmer than the model, appearing just left of the graph’s center. Hubble’s data for calcium is a little dimmer than the model, and appears to the right, about one-sixth of the way from the right-hand edge of the graph.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope spectrum shows the unusual abundances of certain elements it found in the HS 0209+0832 system. Dips indicate where niobium, nickel, and calcium are absorbing light, so less light in that part of the spectrum reached Hubble.

The reason the starlight is showing elements that astronomers attribute to a planet has to do with interactions between the white dwarf star and planet. The white dwarf is still hot and is blasting the planet with radiation, causing it to lose atmosphere to space. That atmospheric material is flowing back toward the white dwarf, forming a disk and then falling back onto its surface.

  • Release Date
    October 5, 2026
  • Science Release
    Suspected Second-generation Planet Solves NASA Hubble Cold Case
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Illustration: NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)

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Related Images & Videos

A gaseous planet in the right foreground, seen mostly in silhouette, orbits a small, white star in the background at left. The star is surrounded by a thin, bright white disk tilted from lower left to upper right. A semi-transparent tail of material comes off the planet toward upper right. Distant stars dot the black background of space.

HS 0209+0832 System (Artist’s Concept)

This artist’s concept depicts a possible explanation for the unusual chemical abundances NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope detected in the HS 0209+0832 system: a second-generation planet orbiting a white dwarf star.

Illustration divided into quadrants, showing the evolution of a star system over time. The upper left is labeled 1. Sun-like star. It shows a small, glowing yellow star centered with other faint stars in the background of space. The upper right quadrant is labeled 2. Red giant. It shows a much larger, puffy orange-red star with a yellow glow within. The bottom left quadrant is labeled 3. White dwarf with second-generation protoplanetary disk, showing a bright white star, smaller than the original Sun-like star, surrounded by a glowing dusty blueish-white disk that is brighter closer to the star. The lower right quadrant is labeled 4. Accretion of a second-generation planet. It shows a similar star to quadrant 3, but the disk is reduced in size and is more purple in color. A planet orbits to the lower left of the star. The planet is larger than the star and has a faint tail leading back to the disk around the star.

White Dwarf HS 0209+0832 over Time (Artist’s Concept)

This artist’s concept, not to scale, imagines the evolution of a Sun-like star (1) into an aging red giant (2) and then a small, bright white dwarf surrounded by a disk of its expelled outer layers (3), from which a second-generation planet forms (4).

An artist's concept image of a white dwarf star with an orange disk of material around it. The NASA "meatball" logo in black and white is in the upper-left corner. The title, "Dying Star Creates Brand New Planet" is across the top-center to the upper-right corner.

Dying Star Creates Brand New Planet (Video)

What if a star’s death could give rise to an entirely new planet? New analysis of archival Hubble data points to the possibility of "dead" white dwarf stars hosting second-generation planetary systems. 

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Details

Last Updated
Oct 05, 2026
Location
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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