Astronomers have discovered an enormous planet that’s 10 occasions greater than Jupiter and is orbiting a pair of large, extraordinarily sizzling stars, an atmosphere beforehand thought too inhospitable for a planet to type. Scientists have named the planet “b Centauri (AB)b” or “b Centauri b”. The European Southern Observatory (ESO), which photographed the planet from its Very Large Telescope within the Chilean desert, mentioned the planet “B-type” twin star “emits large amounts of high-energy ultraviolet and X-ray radiation, both of which have a strong impact on the surrounding gas that should work against planet formation.”
The stars and the planet sit on the centre of a photo voltaic system within the Centaurus constellation. The b Centauri (AB) b is an exoplanet, a planet that’s positioned outdoors our photo voltaic system. Researchers mentioned their findings present that planets can type in far more large stellar techniques than what earlier outcomes had made us imagine. Being 10 occasions greater than Jupiter makes it one of many largest planets ever discovered. The observatory additionally mentioned that the planet’s orbit is “one of the widest yet discovered,” 100 occasions better than the gap between Jupiter and the solar. “This large distance from the central pair of stars could be key to the planet’s survival,” it added.
The discovery was made in July and has been printed formally within the journal Nature this week. “The discovery challenges existing models for how planets and stars form,” the researchers write within the science journal.
“It completely changes the picture about massive stars as planet hosts,” mentioned the research’s lead writer, Markus Janson, a professor of astronomy at Stockholm University. “B-type stars are generally considered as quite destructive and dangerous environments, so it was believed that it should be exceedingly difficult to form large planets around them,” Janson mentioned.
In an e mail to NBC News, Janson mentioned the invention has impressed him and his colleagues to broaden on a survey — referred to as BEAST — to look at 85 comparable stars.
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