NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has located a planet with a mass estimated to be nine times that of Jupiter, which is still considered young in terms of its presence in the universe.
The newly formed planet, named AB Aurigae b, is a gas giant in a remarkably early stage of formation, orbiting a star called AB Aurigae.
According to the Daily Mail AB Aurigae b orbits the star at an unusually long distance – 8.6 billion miles, estimated to be more than twice as far away as Pluto from the Sun (3.7 billion miles) .
Just like Jupiter and Saturn, the planet is a gas giant – made up mostly of hydrogen and helium, which swirl and surround a smaller solid nucleus.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope just spotted the most distant star ever seen. Nicknamed “Earendel,” researchers believe the star is at least 50 times the size of the sun and so far away it took 12.9 billion years for its light to reach us. pic.twitter.com/d98HjONBWA
– Elbert EN Macau (@ElbertMacau) April 2, 2022
The planet is being formed by what NASA experts call an “unconventional,” “intense, and violent process,” different from the generally accepted theory of planet formation.
Researchers have been using Hubble data since 2007, as well as data from the Subaru Telescope near the top of an inactive Hawaiian volcano, to locate and study the planet.
The results of the experts are described in detail in a new study, conducted by NASA experts and published on Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.
“We believe it is still very early in the birth process,” said lead author Thayne Currie of the Subaru Telescope and NASA-Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.
“Evidence shows that this is the earliest stage of formation ever observed for a gas giant.”
Although experts do not have a specific estimate for the diameter of AB Aurigae b, it is believed to be at least as large as Jupiter.
The planet that remains the only known in its system – is integrated into an extensive planet-forming disk that surrounds its star, which is located 508 light-years from Earth. (A light year is the distance light travels in a year).
Its star, AB Aurigae, is estimated to be about 2 million years old – an infant by astronomical standards.
By comparison, the sun is about 4.5 billion years old.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has established an extraordinary new benchmark: detecting the light of a star that existed within the first billion years after the universe’s birth in the big bang – the farthest individual star ever seen to date. pic.twitter.com/rpodiF8o1A
– Tradvestor 🌠🌠(@ Trader7Cool) April 3, 2022
AB Aurigae has recently become known as its image appeared on a scene in the 2021 film “Don’t Look Up”, when the new study was still under development.
It has about 2.4 times more mass than the sun and is almost 60 times brighter.
Daily Mail
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