Astronomers from Yale University in the United States have discovered a "lost" planet almost the same size as Neptune, which was hiding in its solar system 3,000 light years from Earth.
The new planet Kepler-150 f remained unnoticed for several years. Computer algorithms identify most of these exoplanets outside our solar system. Algorithms are used to search according to space mission data, allow calculating control transits of planets orbiting distant stars.
But sometimes computers miss something. In this case, a planet in the Kepler-150 system with a very long orbit. Kepler-150 f takes 637 days to complete a revolution around its sun. It is one of the longest orbits known with five or more planets.
Several years ago, the Kepler mission discovered four more planets in the Kepler-150 system - Kepler-150 b, c, d and e. They all have orbits much closer to their star than Kepler-150 f.
“It is only by using our new modeling technique for the transit signals of known planets that you can truly see it as it really is,” said Joseph Schmitt, a Yale graduate student and lead author of the Astronomical Journal article on the planet.
