Dutch scientists have directly imaged a giant planet orbiting at a large distance around a sun-like star. The planet in question is YSES 2b, located 360 light years from Earth in the direction of the southern constellation of Musca (Latin for The Fly). Why this planet is so massive, and how it got to be there, is still a mystery. Report informs that the researchers will publish their findings in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
The gaseous planet is six times heavier than Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. The newly discovered planet orbits 110 times more distant from its star than the Earth does from the Sun (or 20 times the distance between the Sun and Jupiter). The accompanying star is only 14 million years old and resembles our Sun in its childhood.
The large distance from the planet to the star presents a puzzle to astronomers, because it does not seem to fit either of the two most well-known models for the formation of large gaseous planets.