NASA announced that Hubble Space Telescope He discovered a planet with a mass nine times that of Jupiter.
According to Britain’s Daily Mail, the newly formed planet, called AB Aurigae b, is a gas giant at a remarkably early stage of formation, orbiting a star called AB Aurigae.
AB Aurigae b orbits the star at an unusually distant distance – 8.6 billion miles, more than twice as far as Pluto is from our sun (3.7 billion miles). Just like Jupiter and Saturn, the planet is a gas giant – made up mostly of hydrogen and helium. , with circular gases surrounding a smaller solid core.
The researchers used Hubble data from 2007, as well as the Subaru telescope near the summit of an inactive Hawaiian volcano, to detect and study the planet.
The work is detailed in a new study written by NASA experts and published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.
Evidence indicates that this is the first stage of gas giant formation ever. The planet is embedded in the extensive planet-forming disk surrounding its star, which lies 508 light-years from Earth. (One light year is the distance light travels in a year – 5.9 trillion miles, or 9.5 trillion kilometers).
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