# Artist’s impression of the debris disc around the white dwarf J1328−1450

> Credit: ESO/L. Calçada, CC BY 4.0

Canonical: https://spacesphere.sygnito.com/en/gallery/eso/eso2613a
Last updated: 2026-10-27

ESO, Published 2026-10-27

Image: [Artist’s impression of the debris disc around the white dwarf J1328−1450](https://cdn.eso.org/images/screen/eso2613a.jpg)

Credit: ESO/L. Calçada, CC BY 4.0

This illustration shows a debris disc around the white dwarf J1328−1450 –– the dead core of a star similar to our Sun that expelled its outer layers at the end of its lifetime. The star was suspected to have a planetary system that was vaporised to rubble as the star died, and this debris ended up arranged in a disc like the one shown here. The disc contains both gas and dust, but the gas appears to be arranged in a unique way. Using the X-shooter instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) astronomers measured the speed of the gas orbiting the white dwarf, and found that it moves at two distinct speeds. This indicates that the gas is distributed in two concentric discs with a gap in between. The most likely explanation is that these two gaseous discs are maintained by two planetesimals that survived the death of the star. As they orbit the white dwarf they interact with dust grains in the disc, releasing gas in the process, shown here as luminous trails.

Titles, descriptions and credits are shown in English, as the source publishes them.

## Sources

- ESO: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2613a/
- CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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