The Sun faces a grim fate: astronomers have found Earth in the future near a dead star.

Astronomers have discovered an Earth-like planet located 4,000 light-years away, orbiting a dead star. This planet provides insight into what awaits our planet in the future when the Sun transforms into a different celestial object. The study has been published in the journal Nature Astronomy, reports Forbes.

What is a white dwarf?

Scientists have identified a rocky planet in a system called KMT-2020-BLG-0414, with a mass nearly identical to that of Earth. This planet orbits a type of star known as a white dwarf. The existence of an Earth-like planet near a dead star suggests that in the distant future, our planet may avoid destruction when the Sun changes. It also implies that humanity might have the opportunity to relocate to the outer part of the Solar System, possibly to Jupiter's moons Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede, or Saturn's moon Enceladus.

White dwarfs are a type of star that represents the dense remnants of stars like the Sun. Any star similar to ours, once it exhausts nuclear fusion in its core, first becomes a red giant and then collapses under its own gravity into a white dwarf. Although these stars are sometimes referred to as dead, this is not entirely accurate. White dwarfs continue to cool for millions of years, emitting a small amount of heat and radiation. However, this is certainly insufficient for the existence of a habitable planet.

The extent to which the Sun will expand during its red giant phase determines which planets will be destroyed in the distant future. It is expected that as it expands, the Sun will inevitably engulf Mercury and Venus. But what will happen to Earth?

What happened to the Earth-like planet?

During their study of the KMT-2020-BLG-0414 system, astronomers found that an Earth-like planet orbits the white dwarf at a distance approximately twice that between Earth and the Sun.

Scientists believe that this planet initially resided on a similar orbit around its star as Earth does around the Sun, but it managed to survive its native star's red giant phase and migrated outward.

This supports the theory that as the Sun expands and becomes a red giant, its decreasing mass will cause planets to migrate to more distant orbits. Thus, scientists believe our planet will be spared.

However, even if Earth is not engulfed by the Sun, it will become uninhabitable. Researchers estimate that the Sun may begin to expand in a minimum of 1 billion years and a maximum of 6 billion years.

What will happen to Earth after the Sun changes?

In any case, even if Earth moves farther from the Sun, the red giant will ultimately evaporate the oceans on our planet, rendering it uninhabitable. What remains of Earth in about 8 billion years will orbit a white dwarf.

Scientists believe that Earth will remain habitable for approximately another billion years, but then a severe greenhouse effect will arise long before the Sun begins its transition to a red giant.

At the same time, the habitable zone of the Sun will shift toward the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn as it expands. This means that many of the moons of these planets could become habitable worlds, allowing humanity to migrate there.