Skip to content
Polluted Dead Stars episode artwork

Nov 5, 2026 8 min

Polluted Dead Stars

from Cool Worlds Hosted by Cool Worlds

Cool Worlds Lab guest Dr Sarah Ballard from MIT explains how observing dead stars (white dwarfs) can reveal the makeup of exoplanets and even exoplanetesimals! Be sure to follow Sarah on Twitter @hubbahubble and check out her website at http://www.drsarahballard.com.::More about this Video::► Farihi et al. (2013), "Evidence for Water in the Rocky Debris of a Disrupted Extrasolar Minor Planet": http://arxiv.org/abs/1310.3269► Xu et al. (2014), "Elemental Compositions of Two Extrasolar Rocky Planetesimals": http://arxiv.org/abs/1401.4252► Vanderburg et al. (2015), "A disintegrating minor planet transiting a white dwarf": http://arxiv.org/abs/1510.06387► Outro music by Taylor Davis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl9kI1yQKZk::Playlists For Channel::Latest Cool Worlds Videos ► http://bit.ly/NewCoolWorldsCool Worlds Research ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsResearchGuest Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsGuestsQ&A Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsQAScience of TV/Film ► http://bit.ly/ScienceMovies::Follow us::SUBSCRIBE to the channel http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsSubscribeCool Worlds Lab http://coolworlds.astro.columbia.eduTwitter https://twitter.com/david_kippingInstagram https://www.instagram.com/cool.worldsTHANKS FOR WATCHING!!

Episode details come from the podcast's RSS feed.

Embed this episode

Ready to play

Polluted Dead Stars

0:00 8:56

No transcript yet.

Requests help us decide what to transcribe next.

Frequently asked questions

How long is this episode of Cool Worlds?

This episode is 8 minutes long.

When was this Cool Worlds episode published?

This episode was published on November 5, 2026.

Can I download this Cool Worlds episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.