A huge planet that is almost 3,000 times bigger than our planet Earth has been discovered in the orbit of the young Milky Way Star. The planet, a second, was discovered gyrating the feldgling star Beta Pictoris in our galaxy.
NEW PLANET – β PICTORIS c
New discoveries and evolution are a part of our life today! Every day, a new species, technology or a new source of enhancing life is being discovered! But in a recent study made by Anne Marie Lagrange, author of Nature Astronomy and also a reputed astronomer at the France National Center for Scientific Research.
The massive planet is located around 2.7 times away from its star as compared to the distance between the Sun and Earth. Named as β Pictoris c, the new planet completes its one full orbit roughly in 1200 days. This is the second planet discovered, the β Pictoris b being the first planet discovered in the milky way. The β Pictoris b is just as big as the β Pictoris c and was discovered in 2009 by Anne Marie Lagrange and her team.
A gassy giant, the Beta Pictoris is a gassy giant and visible with our naked eye. The planets have a mass that is twice the mass of Sun. The planets are considered newborn, especially as they just 23 million years old, while our sun is almost 4.5 billion years old.
The planets are relatively located nearby, and are just 63 light years away with a disk of stellar dust surrounding it.
It was this whirling halo of debris along with gas that was captured for the first time in an image, sometime in 1980s. This unique combination of halo debris and gas that was surrounding the planet was the first such configuration to be captured, making Beta Pictoris a very celebrated star at the time of its discovery.
In an interview, Lagrange stated “To better understand the early stage of the formation and evolution, this is probably the best planetary system we know of”. According to the studies and observations made, it has been proved that both these planets are still molding and taking their shape.
The new planet β Pictoris c was successfully discovered after the proper analysis of high resolution data of 10 years that were obtained by the astronomy instruments at the Las Silla Observatory, northern Chile. The observatory was run by intergovernmental European Southern Observatory.
Based on the previous studies made on the β Pictoris b in 2014, the scientists confirmed that the planet spins at a high speed of 25 km per second, that is 56,000 miles per hour. The β Pictoris is located at the Pictor’s southern constellation, also known as the Painter’s Easel. It is the second brightest star to be discovered in its huge constellation. Thus making the β Pictoris one of the most important discoveries made this year. Future studies and observatories will show how the new planet is evolving and forming its new shape.
