Apocalypse Next? Astronomers Find a Chunk of Planet Around a Distant, Dead Star

It is only the second solid remnant of a planet to have been discovered orbiting a white dwarf. Such debris disks were typically understood to be the remains of a small body, such as an asteroid or comet, that had come near the white dwarf and been torn apart by tidal forces. The newly found fragment would have to be solid metal, perhaps iron, to have withstood the tidal stretching, Dr. Manser said.

Source: www.nytimes.com