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Researchers believe there may be a planet in the solar system that could sustain life, in the vicinity of a dying sun.

If confirmed, this would be the first time that a potentially life-supporting planet has been found orbiting a star called a "white dwarf".

White dwarfs are the cool cores of dead stars that are left behind after average-size stars shed their outer layers.
They are usually about the size of Earth, and scientists say the sun will one day become a white dwarf, as will about 97% of all stars.

The planet was detected in the star's "habitable zone", where it's neither too cold nor too hot to sustain life.

The study is published in the monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Prof Jay Farihi of University College London, who led the study, said the observation was completely new to astronomers. He told Newsday: "What I like about this discovery is that is just kind of blows away this idea of white dwarf stars being kind of like dead or stellar graveyards, this tells us that life can be persisting on time scales, maybe across cosmic time, far, far into the future."

(Photo Credit: Mark A. Garlick/markgarlick.com / PA Wire)

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