The first rocky planet ever spotted orbiting a burned out star called a white dwarf offers a glimpse of what may be in store for Earth billions of years from now - showing it is possible our planet might survive the death of the sun,

The planet, called KMT-2020-BLG-0414 and located 4,000 light-years from Earth, is a rocky world orbiting a white dwarf — the embering husk of a star. Our sun is expected to transform into a white dwarf in 5 billion years’ time. Before that, though ...

The red giant phase is pretty crazy. The star's outer atmosphere can expand to hundreds of times its initial size; some projections of the Sun's future – due to start becoming a red giant in about 5 billion years or so – predict it could grow as large as out to the orbit of Mars, engulfing Mercury, Venus, and Earth in the process.

The discovery of an Earth-sized planet orbiting a white dwarf shows a possible future for Earth billions of years from now.