A “super Jupiter” has been spotted around a neighboring star by the Webb Space Telescope — and it has a super orbit. Related video above: First image from Japanese lunar lander The planet is about the same diameter as Jupiter, but six times more massive. Its atmosphere is also rich in hydrogen, like Jupiter’s. One big difference: this planet takes more than a century, possibly even 250 years, to orbit its star. It is 15 times the distance from its star than Earth is from the sun. Scientists have long suspected that a large planet orbits this star 12 light years away, but not as massive or far from its star. One light year is 5.8 trillion miles. These new observations show that the planet orbits the star Epsilon Indi A, part of a triple star system. An international team led by Elisabeth Mathews of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany collected the images last year and published the findings Wednesday in the journal Nature. Astronomers directly observed the incredibly old and cold gas giant – a rare and difficult feat – by masking the star using a special Webb shadowing device. Blocking the starlight, the planet stood out as a point of infrared light. The planet and star clock are 3.5 billion years old, 1 billion years younger than our own solar system, but still considered old and brighter than expected, according to Matthews. The star is so close and bright to our own solar system that is visible to the naked eye in the southern hemisphere. Don’t bet on life, though. “It’s a gas giant with no solid surface or liquid water oceans,” Matthews said in an email. This solar system is unlikely to have more gas giants, she said, but small rocky worlds may be lurking there. Jupiter-like worlds can help scientists understand “how these planets evolve over gigayear time scales,” she said. The first planets outside our solar system — called exoplanets — were confirmed in the early 1990s. NASA’s count now stands at 5,690 as of mid-July. Most of them were discovered by the transit method, in which a fleeting dip in starlight repeated at regular intervals indicates an orbiting planet. Telescopes in space and also on the ground are on the hunt for even more, especially planets that may be similar to Earth. Launching in 2021, NASA and the European Space Agency’s Webb Telescope is the largest and most powerful astronomical observatory ever placed in space.___ The Associated Press Health and Science Division is supported by the Institute of Medicine’s Science and Education Media Group Howard Hughes. AP is solely responsible for all content.
A ‘super Jupiter’ has been spotted around a neighboring star by the Webb Space Telescope – and it has a super orbit.
Related video above: First photo from the Japanese lunar lander
The planet is about the same diameter as Jupiter, but with six times the mass. Its atmosphere is also rich in hydrogen, like Jupiter’s.
One big difference: this planet takes more than a century, possibly even 250 years, to orbit its star. This is 15 times the distance from the star than the Earth is from the sun.
Scientists have long suspected that a large planet orbits this star 12 light years away, but not as massive or far from its star. One light year is 5.8 trillion miles. These new observations show that the planet orbits the star Epsilon Indi A, part of a triple star system.
An international team led by Elisabeth Mathews of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany collected the images last year and published the findings on Wednesday in the journal Nature.
Astronomers directly observed the incredibly old and cold gas giant – a rare and difficult feat – by masking the star using a special Webb shadowing device. Blocking the starlight, the planet stood out as a point of infrared light.
The planet and clock star are 3.5 billion years old, 1 billion years younger than our solar system, but still considered old and brighter than expected, according to Matthews.
The star is so close and bright to our solar system that it is visible to the naked eye in the southern hemisphere.
Don’t bet your life, though.
“It is a gas giant with no solid surface or liquid water oceans,” Matthews said in an email.
This solar system is unlikely to have any more gas giants, she said, but small rocky worlds may be lurking there.
Jupiter-like worlds can help scientists understand “how these planets evolve on gigayear time scales,” she said.
The first planets outside our solar system – called exoplanets – were confirmed in the early 1990s. NASA’s count now stands at 5,690 as of mid-July. Most of them were discovered by the transit method, in which a fleeting dip in starlight repeated at regular intervals indicates an orbiting planet.
Telescopes in space and also on the ground are looking for even more, especially planets that may be similar to Earth.
Launching in 2021, NASA and the European Space Agency’s Webb Telescope is the largest and most powerful astronomical observatory ever placed in space.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Division is supported by the Science and Education Media Group of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. AP is solely responsible for all content.
