A new planet was photographed yesterday, orbiting
a star about 300 light-years from Earth. Scientists say this may be the least
massive planet observed outside the solar system. A photo was released by a
European Southern Observatory (ESO) on Monday June 3, the picture was of a gas
giant (HD 95086 b) circling its young star (HD 95086). HD 95086 b was sighted
by ESO's large telescope in Chile. Scientists predict that it's only about four
or five more times massive than Jupiter. They could predict this by using the
planets brightness. Another photo from the same place (ESO) shows that the star
and its planet are in context with other stars in the southern constellation of
Carina, the keel. HD 95086 b orbits its star about twice the distance from the
sun to Neptune. The star that this planet is orbiting is a relatively young
star, only about 10- 17 million years old. They predict that the planet either;
grew by assembling rocks that formed the solid core, and then slowly
accumulated gas from the environment to form the heavy atmosphere, or started
from a gaseous clump that arose from gravitational instabilities in the disc.
(HD 95086 b is the light blue dot in the lower left, the image in the middle was a picture of its star, however the star was removed from the picture so the planet could shine through.)
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