Blogs / 80beats

Astronomers think they have taken the first picture ever of a planet orbiting a star very similar to our own sun. However, the new planet itself appears to be quite different from our Earth. Located around 500 light-years from Earth, the planet in the snapshot is around eight times bigger than Jupiter, the biggest in our solar system and lies more than ten times further from its star than the sun does from Neptune [Telegraph]. Researchers were surprised to discover that the planet orbits at such a distance from its star, and say the discovery could upend accepted theories of planet formation.

The researchers say they’ll keep studying the object they spotted to confirm that the planet is in fact orbiting around the star, as opposed to the possibility, however unlikely, that the two objects just happen to lie in the same area of the sky at roughly the same distance from us. “Of course it would be premature to say that the object is definitely orbiting this star, but the evidence is extremely compelling,” [lead researcher David] Lafrenière said [SPACE.com].

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It may be getting old hat for some astronomy researchers, but the discovery of new exoplanets—planets orbiting stars far from our little solar system—can still send a shiver of excitement through space buffs. And today was a jackpot, as European researchers announced that they’d found a trio of “super-Earths” that are only slightly larger than our own planet, and that the three are all orbiting the same star 42 light years away.

They said their findings, presented at a conference in France, suggest that Earth-like planets may be very common. “Does every single star harbour planets and, if yes, how many?” asked Michel Mayor of Switzerland’s Geneva Observatory. “We may not yet know the answer, but we are making huge progress towards it,” Mayor said in a statement [New Scientist].

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In a solar system far, far away, around a small and dim star, orbits a small planet, just three times the size of Earth.

The astronomers who discovered the small planet don’t know much else about it yet, but the basics are enough to get them excited. Extraterrestrial life is thought to have the best chance of surviving on planets with a similar mass to that of Earth, orbiting small stars.

This “exoplanet,” which goes by the romantic name MOA-2007-BLG-192Lb, is the second smallest planet ever spotted outside our solar system. The very smallest planet yet discovered is believed to be sterile, as it orbits a neutron star that emits blasts of radiation.

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