Rejoice! Scientists have discovered a new planet.
The b Centauri b exoplanet is located in the neighboring constellation of Centaurus and is a cool 325 light years away from Earth.
The Very Large Telescope at the European Southern Observatory has photographed b Centauri b, and it is the most fascinating picture because it is in the middle of a pair of systems that are collectively between six and 10.
It wasn't possible for planets to go to the stars, but b Centauri is now the hottest star pair to have one. The main star, b Centauri A, is three times hotter than our Sun, and combined with its supporting star, this system is bombarding this newly-discovered planet with brutal quantities of X-ray and ultraviolet radiation.
Stars like these are considered to be destructive and dangerous.
It was thought that it would be difficult to form large planets around them.
It is unlikely that this small planet could be as big as the one we have on Earth because it is so far away from our Sun or a star system than Earth. A new Nature paper about the planet by Janson and his team suggests that the planet has been able to survive all the radiation from the stellar pair because of its extremely wide orbit.
3. The planet is ten times heavier than Jupiter and 100 times farther from the Sun than Jupiter. This is one of the widest circles yet discovered and could be crucial to the planet's survival.
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Credit: L.Calada/spaceengine.org
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December 8, 2021.
The relative youth of the stars it is circling is 15 million years older than our Sun, which makes this new exoplanet different.
Space.com noted that researchers don't have a good idea of how b Centauri b was formed. It could have been formed by the theory that planets like Jupiter are formed by dust particles banding together until they become large enough to have a pull.
Researchers said it could have been born through a process calledgravitational instability in which an existing nebula collapses due to its own massive gravity and turns into the same kind of dust particles needed for planetary formation.
The existence of b Centauri b is upending a lot of things that were thought to be true.
Janson said that finding a planet around b Centauri changed the picture of massive stars as planet hosts.
The discovery of this new planet is a technological feat that would have been impossible 30 years ago. The universe will likely become larger and stranger as megatelescopes become more advanced.
The alien planet was spotted circling a pair of superhot stars.
Scientists plan a private mission to hunt for Earths around Alpha Centauri.
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