Scientists confirm existence of largest planet orbiting binary star pair
14 Jun 2016
Scientists have confirmed the existence of the largest-ever planet orbiting a pair of binary stars - a gas giant having the same mass and radius as Jupiter. Exoplanets such as this one situated in their stars' habitable zone and massive enough for their gravitation to 'capture' many moons could be an interesting place to go looking for signs of alien life, according to scientists.
The newly confirmed behemoth had been named Kepler-1647 b, and is 3,700 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. A light-year is around 6 trillion miles. It is estimated to be 4.4 billion years old and is roughly the same age as the earth. However, it is very different from our earth. It is what is called a circumbinary world - one that orbits two suns that dance together as a binary pair - and is the same size as Jupiter, a planet with a diameter over 11 times that of earth's. The suns it orbits are very similar to our own (one is slightly smaller and the other slightly larger) but, it has two of them.
At around 2.7 astronomical units (AUs) from its suns (earth is 1 AU from ours) Kepler-1647 b is in the habitable zone of its stars, meaning that it was in the magic sweet spot that experienced the right amount of sunlight and heat to allow liquid water to form.
In addition to being the largest ''circumbinary'' planet, it also has one of the longest orbits ever recorded for a transiting planet, which it completes in 1,107 days.
However, it was not the only body on the move. As Kepler-1647b traveled around the system, the two stars were, themselves, in orbit around each other.
''Every 11 days the stars eclipse each other, so it is like a clock,'' said Veselin Kostov, lead author of the new research from Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center, The Guardian reported.
