The pairing is unexpected because this gas giant exoplanet with a mass similar to Jupiter's is orbiting a white dwarf.

The findings of a new study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, show that planets can survive this incredibly violent phase of stellar evolution and support the theory that more than half of white dwarfs likely have similar planets orbiting them.

"This evidence confirms that planets orbiting at a large enough distance can continue to exist after their star's death," said Joshua Blackman, lead study author and astronomy postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tasmania in Australia, in a statement.

The white dwarf is 60% the mass of our sun, and the planet is about 40% more massive than Jupiter.

The high-resolution near-infrared images allowed the researchers to rule out the possibility that what the exoplanet is orbiting is a normal star or another type of evolved star.

"We have also been able to rule out the possibility of a neutron star or a black hole host.

This means that the planet is orbiting a dead star, a white dwarf," said study coauthor Jean-Philippe Beaulieu, Warren chair of Astrophysics at the University of Tasmania and director of research for the French National Centre for Scientific Research's Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, in a statement.

We expect that we will find planets of a range of masses orbiting white dwarfs."

"We do expect to find planets with a range of masses orbiting white dwarfs, but smaller rocky planets in close orbits are more likely to have been ripped apart during the red giant phase of its host star's evolution," Blackman added.

The researchers will continue the search for exoplanet survivors orbiting dead stars in the future.

The telescope will directly image giant planets and survey the planets orbiting white dwarfs across our galaxy, providing scientists with a better ratio of how many are destroyed by stellar evolution and how many survive.

In the last few years, other giant planets have been found orbiting dead stars, including one that is slowly being eaten alive by its zombie star, as well as a giant planet that closely orbits a white dwarf.

"The news of another planet found circling a white dwarf is exciting, offering additional proof that planets exist around dead stars after our paper last year reported on the first one ever found," said Lisa Kaltenegger, director of Cornell University's Carl Sagan Institute.