🪐 Dead Stars Could Host Life for 10 Billion Years

White dwarfs, once seen as stellar graveyards, may keep planets in a habitable zone far longer than expected thanks to neon‑22 that slows their cooling, new University of Oklahoma research suggests.

Manuel Barrientos and colleagues estimate that about 0.6%–2.5% of nearby white dwarfs have at least 2.5% neon‑22 by mass, triggering distillation that releases heat like a lava lamp and can extend habitability up to 10 billion years.

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