Planets orbiting a neutron star? The shocking discovery that rewrote science #NeutronStar #Planets

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]In 1992, a radio telescope found three planets circling a dead star. A supernova remnant that should have incinerated any world. Polish astronomer Alexander Woljan was analyzing data from the Aerosibo observatory when he spotted tiny timing variations of the millisecond pulsar PSRB2712.

[00:00:20]He used the pulsar ultrarecise clock-like ticks to measure subtle arrival delays caused by orbiting bodies. Those delays revealed three Earth mass planets around a neutron star, an environment where standard planet formation theories said no world could exist. The planets now designated PKB, PC, and PD have masses between 0.2 and 4.3 Earths and orbit at distances similar to Mercury, Venus, and Earth.

[00:00:46]Their presence defies the expectation that a supernova would vaporize any protolanetary disc. Yet, the orbits are stable and nearly co-planer. The discovery proved planets can survive a stellar explosion, rewriting the rules of planetary formation and earning Woljchan a share of the Nobel Prize.

[00:01:03]Today, scientists still debate whether the worlds formed before the blast and endured its fury or coalesed from the debris that followed. An unsolved puzzle around a pulsar ghostly glow.