The discovery of an Earth-like planet 4,000 light years away in the Milky Way galaxy provides a preview of one possible fate for our planet billions of years in the future, when the sun has turned into a white dwarf,

Astronomers have discovered an Earth-like planet orbiting a white dwarf star about 4,000 light-years away. This discovery offers a potential preview of Earth’s distant future as the Sun undergoes its own transformation into a white dwarf billions of years from now.

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 search for a second Earth within the Milky Way is ongoing, but a recently discovered planet falls short of the mark.