Tuesday, 12 July 2016

First direct images of a gas giant exoplanet in a triple-star system

This artist's impression shows a view of the triple-star system HD 131399 from close to the giant planet orbiting in the system. The planet is known as HD 131399Ab and appears at the lower-left of the picture. Located about 320 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur), HD 131399Ab is about 16 million years old, making it also one of the youngest exoplanets discovered to date, and one of very few directly imaged planets. With a temperature of around 580 degrees Celsius and an estimated mass of four Jupiter masses, it is also one of the coldest and least massive directly-imaged exoplanets.
Three hundred and forty light years from Earth, there burns a triple star system lighting a planet unlike any other world we've ever seen. What might you see, if you could go there and look up at its sky?

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/231545-first-direct-images-exoplanet-triple-star-system
Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)