sqishy
December 13th, 2013, 08:39 PM
HD 106906 b is a large exoplanet (a planet orbiting a star other than out own) orbiting the star HD 106906, in the constellation Crux at about 300 light-years from Earth. The star itself has been observed with telescopes since 2005 but the planet was confirmed to have been discovered, on December 4th.
What makes the discovery newsworthy is that it has the planet appears to have the largest orbit around, and therefore the biggest distance from, its host star, at almost 97 billion kilometres from the star. The system is judged to be about 13 million years old, which is unusually young, going by the properties of the primary and its surrounding massive debris disk, which the planet lies in.
97 billion kilometres can be translated into AU, astronomical units, 1 astronomical unit being the average distance of Earth from the Sun in its orbit. HD 106906 b's orbit is around 650 AU from its star, comparing to Neptune (our solar system's most distant planet) being around 30 AU away from the sun.
The orbital period of this planet is not yet known, but observation of this system is currently being done to gather more knowledge. Guesses can be made to have the planet's year to be equal at the very least to be many thousand of earth years.
The discovery team gave the possibility that HD 106906 b is not gravitationally bound to HD 106906, but is instead seen close to it along our line of sight and moving in the same direction by chance. The odds of this coincidence were found to be less than 0.01% .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_106906_b
http://scitechdaily.com/newly-discovered-exoplanet-hd-106906-b-unlike-anything-solar-system/
Doctor Who fans (including me) wanting to name this planet Gallifrey:
http://www.change.org/petitions/international-astronomical-union-name-the-recently-discovered-planet-hd-106906-b-gallifrey-in-honor-of-doctor-who-s-50-years
http://www.flickfilosopher.com/2013/12/doctor-thing-petition-name-newly-discovered-planet-hd-106906-b-gallifrey.html
What makes the discovery newsworthy is that it has the planet appears to have the largest orbit around, and therefore the biggest distance from, its host star, at almost 97 billion kilometres from the star. The system is judged to be about 13 million years old, which is unusually young, going by the properties of the primary and its surrounding massive debris disk, which the planet lies in.
97 billion kilometres can be translated into AU, astronomical units, 1 astronomical unit being the average distance of Earth from the Sun in its orbit. HD 106906 b's orbit is around 650 AU from its star, comparing to Neptune (our solar system's most distant planet) being around 30 AU away from the sun.
The orbital period of this planet is not yet known, but observation of this system is currently being done to gather more knowledge. Guesses can be made to have the planet's year to be equal at the very least to be many thousand of earth years.
The discovery team gave the possibility that HD 106906 b is not gravitationally bound to HD 106906, but is instead seen close to it along our line of sight and moving in the same direction by chance. The odds of this coincidence were found to be less than 0.01% .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_106906_b
http://scitechdaily.com/newly-discovered-exoplanet-hd-106906-b-unlike-anything-solar-system/
Doctor Who fans (including me) wanting to name this planet Gallifrey:
http://www.change.org/petitions/international-astronomical-union-name-the-recently-discovered-planet-hd-106906-b-gallifrey-in-honor-of-doctor-who-s-50-years
http://www.flickfilosopher.com/2013/12/doctor-thing-petition-name-newly-discovered-planet-hd-106906-b-gallifrey.html