M
Mike Wehner
Guest
- Astronomers using observations from NASA's trusty Hubble Space Telescope have detected a distant exoplanet with an extreme orbit.
- The planet, called HD 106906, has a highly elliptical orbit that sends it far away from its stars every time it completes a trip.
- The planet's extreme orbit is similar to what some scientists believe is true of a mysterious and unseen ninth planet in our own solar system.
We all grew up thinking there were nine planets in our solar system. Pluto got demoted, leaving just eight official planets, but in recent years some scientists have begun to believe that there is indeed a ninth big planet hanging out on the edges of the solar system, beyond our limits of detection. It's a theory that is supported by observations of smaller objects in the asteroid belt past Neptune, but nobody has actually seen this lost world.
Now, the Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a distant exoplanet that has an incredibly distorted orbit around its host stars. The planet, called HD 106906, orbits a double star located 336 light-years away, and NASA says it could help astronomers explain how our own still-mythical "Planet Nine" could exist.
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Hubble spots exoplanet with a wild orbit originally appeared on BGR.com on Fri, 11 Dec 2020 at 22:37:25 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Via BRG - Boy Genius Report