“Dance of the Giants”: A huge exoplanet was discovered around a larger stellar “twin”

European and American astronomers have announced that they have discovered and “photographed” a new gas giant exoplanet around the dual star system Beta Centaur, which is visible to the naked eye. The exoplanet is about ten times the mass of Jupiter and moves around not one but two stars whose combined mass is almost ten times that of the Sun.

It is the hottest and most massive exoplanet stellar system ever found. Some astronomers did not believe that it was possible to find planets – and so large – around such large, hot stars.

The exoplanet b Centauri b or b Centauri (AB) b is located about 325 light-years from Earth in the constellation Centaurus. It moves a great distance from the stars of the dual star system, 560 times the distance from Earth to the Sun or 100 times the distance from Jupiter-Sun, one of the longest distances between an exoplanet and its star ever observed.

It is also estimated that the planet’s mass is almost 11 times that of Jupiter, making it one of the largest giant exoplanets ever found, with its star being only 15 million years old and at least six times its mass. that of the Sun. The basic star of the dual system is type B, at least three times hotter than the Sun, and because of its high temperature it emits large amounts of ultraviolet and X-ray radiation.

The researchers, led by Swedish astronomer Markus Jansson of Stockholm University, who observed the planet with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory in Chile, published the publication in the journal Nature.

Astronomers have pointed out that so far there have been no observations of gaseous exoplanets around stars with masses greater than three solar masses. In this case, however, the exoplanet orbits two stars that have a combined mass six to ten times that of the Sun. The discovery confirms that it is possible for planets to exist in such extreme stellar environments.

“We have always had a very influenced perception of our solar system as to what a planetary system is supposed to look like. In the last ten years, however, the discovery of many planetary systems with unexpected and completely different formations has led us to broaden our previous historically narrow view. “The new discovery adds a fascinating new chapter to this story, this time about big stars,” said Matthias Samland, a German astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg.

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