[1]Astronomers have discovered a mysterious planet-like object, about eight times the size of Jupiter, which is circling around a star at a distance nearly 300 times farther than earth orbits the sun.
The object, located about 500 light-years away and designated as 1RXS J160929.1-210524b, is locked in orbit around very young star though the exact relationship between the two still remains a mystery.
Scientists believe it could be a planet which was catapulted out into the nether regions after a collision or close encounter with an as-yet undetected sibling planet.
“There is no theory for how a true planet can form at 300 AU (astronomical units, with one unit equal to 93 million miles — the mean distance between earth and the sun). It’s not really a lack of imagination. It’s a lack of physics,” John Johnson, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology, told Discovery News.
Current theories, observations and computer models show that planets form a disk of gas and dust that circles young stars. Less material is available as the distance to the parent star grows. “You actually have to have material out there to have the planet forming,” Johnson said.
Another option, the scientists said, is that the object is a new type of failed star — something akin to a brown dwarf, though about half the size — which formed along with the primary star about five million years ago.
But scientists similarly are at a loss to explain how such a relatively small object could have survived the stellar birthing process.
“The models show it’s difficult to successfully produce a low-mass object next to a much more massive object,” said
David Lafreniere, an astronomer at the University of Montreal, who lead a team that photographed the object in 2008 — the first time a planet beyond the solar system was directly imaged.
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[1] http://archive.asianage.com/newsmjpg-499