Scientists have discovered an unusual system in which there is a giant monster planet "dancing" with several stars.
The discovery was made by a team of scientists that consisted almost entirely of specialists from the Carnegie Institution. Some of them worked there before, others continue to work in this organization to this day. The center of attention was the star HD 7449, located in the constellation Cetus and located at a distance of 127.2 light years from us. Two celestial bodies revolve around it, and one of them is a giant planet, which was discovered in 2011.
The mass of this planet is about eight times the mass of Jupiter (the largest of the planets in our system). But scientists were interested not in this, but in the fact that she was shaved one of the most eccentric. This conclusion allowed us to assume the presence of another large celestial body in the system. "The question was, is this a planet or a dwarf star?" Says astronomer Timothy Rodigas.
To answer it, the scientists used the Magellan adaptive optics of Magellan telescopes. The tools allow you to capture images with extremely high resolution. In this way, researchers can directly capture images of distant objects. Scientists watched the celestial body for several seconds, and this was enough to answer the main question. It turned out that the mysterious third object is a dwarf star.
Planetary system / © Astrophysical Journal
In other words, we have before us a system where there is a sun-like star, a dwarf star and a giant planet "squeezed" by these objects. She kind of "dances" in her system. Scientists have already named it one of the most amazing planetary systems.
The mass of the star, which scientists have identified, is 20% of the mass of our sun. The orbit of the Luminary lies close to the orbit of a larger star, and the distance between them can be only 18 astronomical units (a.u. is approximately equal to the average distance from our planet to the Sun).
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Scientists will continue to observe the strange system. To do this, they intend to use two approaches: the radial velocity method and the direct imaging method. Among other things, researchers will try to understand how such a strange system arose.
We will remind, earlier other scientists have identified the nearest potentially habitable exoplanet. It is located in the constellation Ophiuchus at a distance of 14 light years, Wolf 1061c. The planet is located in the so-called. habitable zone. Scientists believe that it may contain water in a liquid state. Moreover, the mass of the planet is approximately 4.5 times the mass of the Earth.