Chinese scientists have discovered three exoplanets that challenge the existing understanding of how planets evolve around aging stars, the research team behind the discoveries told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Like the sun, most stars generate light and heat by fusing hydrogen into helium in their cores. When their core hydrogen is exhausted, they eventually expand dramatically into red giants, potentially growing to hundreds of thousands or even millions of times their original volume. Nearby planets then face a grim fate: They may be directly engulfed by the stars’ expanding atmospheres or gradually pulled toward them by tidal forces until they eventually plunge into the stars, said Qian Shengbang, a professor at the School of Physics and Astronomy at Yunnan University and head of the research team.

However, the team has identified three exoplanets that appear to have survived in what current models predict to be a danger zone.