Worlds orbiting other stars used to be only found in science fiction. Within the last 16 years astronomers have started to dedicate much more time to the search of other worlds in orbit around other stars beyond our Solar System. You can keep up to date with the latest count at NASA’s Planetquest site. Each of these new worlds discovered are different and exciting and gives us some insight into the scale of our Universe. The ‘Methuselah’ planet was first discovered in 1993 but its discovery was only confirmed in 2003. This planet is located inside a globular cluster of stars, which is a circle of stars held together by gravity. This globular cluster is located in the constellation of Scorpius the Scorpion. The densest exoplanet discovered to date is the planet Janssen (55 Cancri e). This planet also has a year of just less than 18 hours. Originally when it was discovered it was thought to have an orbit of 2.8 days but on further inspection it was realized that this planet moved very quickly. 55 Cancri e, is a little bigger than Earth but no where near as large as a gas giant planet. Astronomers have been able to work out the planet’s mass, which is thought to be almost 9 times that of the Earth, meaning that this planet is almost as dense as pure lead, meaning this is the densest planet discovered so far! The exoplanet Fomalhaut b (also known as Dagon) has the longest year. One orbit for this planet around its parent star is approximately 320 000 days or 876 years. This planet was discovered in November 2008, and thought to be around the same size as Jupiter; however it may have a mass of three times that of Jupiter’s. The most massive exoplanet was only discovered in February 2011. This is the planet CD-35 2722b in orbit around its parent star CD-35 2722. This star is located almost 70 light years away from Earth, and is a gas giant planet with a mass 31 times that of Jupiter’s. There is so much for mankind to learn about these new planets. This is a very exciting time to be an astronomer!
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Mrs. TaylorI love science! Everything about the world is interesting and never boring. I love to study plants, animals, insects, and people. My favorite subjects are my students who are the most unique organisms on the planet! Categories |