New Discovery: Young Planet Found Outside of Solar System

Have your Blaster been keeping up with the latest space happenings? It seems that a team of astronomers have discovered a giant planet, orbiting a single, sun-like star, right outside of our solar system. What’s most unique about this planet? It weighs 11 times more than Jupiter’s mass, and it is orbiting its star at 650 times the average Earth-Sun distance, which is a formation model that cannot be explained by present theories and knowledge.

Photo by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

This young planet is about 13 million years old, and it still glows from the heat that was created during its formation. Earth was created 4.5 billion years ago, which is 350 times older than this giant planet, known as HD 106906 b. Its temperature is about 2,700°F, which is much cooler than its host stars, and thus, emits most of its energy as infrared, not visible light.

Since this planet is orbiting very far from its parent star, astronomers are very puzzled and confused about its odd formation. None of the present theories sustained. This new discovery provided astronomers the opportunity to question planets’ formation, history, and composition.