Ep. 789: What Happens When a Planet's Star Dies

Hosted by: Fraser Cain ( @frasercain ) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay ( @CosmoQuest ) Streamed live on Mar 30, 2026. A star like the Sun only lasts about 10 billion years and it becomes a red giant and finally a white dwarf. This is catastrophic for some of the planets, consumed by the expanding red giant star. But most survive. What happens next in the long, slow cooling to the background temperature of the Universe? This show is supported through people like you on Patreon.com/AstronomyCast In this episode, we'd like to thank: Burry Gowen, Eric Lee, Jeanette Wink, Michael Purcell, Andrew Poelstra, David, David Rossetter, Ed, Gerhard Schwarzer, Jason Kwong, Joe McTee, Sergey Manouilov, Siggi Kemmler, Sergio Sancevero

You can listen to Ep. 789: What Happens When a Planet's Star Dies online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Ep. 789: What Happens When a Planet's Star Dies is an episode from 365 Days of Astronomy - Weekly Edition.

This episode is 52:58 long.

This episode was published on Apr 5, 2026.

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