For more than 25 years, unusual chemical signatures from a white dwarf star lay unexplained in the Hubble Space Telescope archive. A young astronomer finally investigated them and found high amounts of niobium along with other unusual chemical abundances. These clues point to a possible second-generation planet orbiting the white dwarf, one that may have formed from debris of an earlier planet. The star is the remnant of a Sun-like star that has burned through its fuel. The release describes the discovery as a cold case solved by careful sleuthing in old data. It shows how archival observations can still produce major findings.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.