“When the sun balloons outwards in what’s known as its red giant phase, it will likely obliterate Mercury and Venus and possibly Earth,” said the lead author of the study, Joshua Blackman, an astronomer at the University of Tasmania in Australia.

And now the detection of the distant planet orbiting a white dwarf strengthens that idea.

“Our discovery is evidence that the standard picture of how planetary systems evolve as their host star dies is likely to be correct,” Blackman said.

Although it’s likely to have formed farther from the star than its current orbit, the shrinking of the host star after its red giant phase hadn’t drawn it so close that it fragmented, which has been theorized in some models.

“We think the planet survived the red giant phase of its star’s evolution likely untouched,” he said

Kaltenegger, who wasn’t involved in the latest research, was part of a team that reported the detection of a different giant planet orbiting a white dwarf star late last year — the first one ever seen