If the new discovery is finally confirmed, existing theories of planetary formation will have to be revised.
< p> An international group of astronomers led by researchers from the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven) found that dying, some types of stars can form planets, reports the Chronicle.info with reference to the Correspondent.
Until now, it was believed that in most systems, planets are born shortly after their host stars. As you know, our Sun began to burn 4.6 billion years ago, and over the next million years, the matter around the star condensed and a protoplanetary disk appeared.
It was in it that the planets, including the Earth, were born, however, such disks dust and gas do not necessarily surround only newborn stars. Previous studies have shown that they can also develop around binary stars, one of which is dying.
When the end approaches for a medium-sized star (such as the Sun), it ejects the outer part of its atmosphere into space, after which it slowly fades away as a so-called white dwarf.
In the case of binary stars, the gravitational pull of the second star causes the matter, ejected by a dying star to form a flat rotating disk that resembles the protoplanetary disks seen around young stars.
In a new study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics scientists have shown that the disks surrounding the so-called evolved binary stars often show signs of planet formation.
During their observations, they examined 85 binary star systems, and these phenomena were detected in infrared images of ten of them.< /p> 
«In 10% of the evolved binary stars with disks we have studied, we see a large cavity in the disk. This is a sign that something is floating there that has collected all the matter in the region of the cavity», — said the first author of the article, astronomer from KU Leuven Jacques Kluska.
He also added that in such systems there are very few heavy elements such as iron on the surface of a dying star. This suggests that dust particles rich in these elements were captured by the planet.
Kluska does not rule out that several planets could form around binary stars in this way.
If astronomers' observations are conclusive confirmed, the current scientific views on the formation of planets will need to be corrected.
«Confirmation or refutation of this unusual way of planet formation will be an unprecedented test for current theories», — said the head of the Institute of Astronomy KU Leuven, Professor Hans Van Winkel.
To test their hypothesis, astronomers intend to use the large telescopes of the European Southern Observatory in Chile.