Second generation planets

Understand

Planets are typically thought to form in protoplanetary disks left over from protostellar disk of their newly formed host star.

• However, an additional planetary formation route may exist in old evolved binary systems.
• In such systems stellar evolution could lead to the formation of symbiotic stars, where mass transferred from the expanding evolved star to its binary companion could form an accretion disk around it.
• Such a disk could provide the necessary environment for the formation of a second generation of planets in both circumstellar or circumbinary configurations.