Unusual Planet within a Triple Star System Imaged (2 of 4) (IMAGE)
Caption
This is an 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 340 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 having an estimated mass of four Jupiter masses, it is also one of the coldest and least massive directly imaged exoplanets. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the July 8, 2016 issue of Science, published by AAAS. The paper, by K. Wagner at The University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ, and colleagues was titled, "Direct imaging discovery of a Jovian exoplanet within a triple-star system."
Credit
ESO/L. Calçada/M. Kornmesser
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