Astronomers discover 16-million-year-old planet with 3 suns
Using the Very Large Telescope in Chile, astronomers were able to make a Very Large Discovery: A 16-million-year-old planet with three suns, 320 light years away from Earth.
Planet HD 131399Ab is in the constellation Centaurus, and takes 600 years to orbit its main sun. Depending on the season, the planet either experiences constant daylight or triple sunrises and sunsets, and it is gaseous like Jupiter, scientists wrote in a study published Thursday in the journal Science.
The planet was discovered a year ago, and researchers have only been able to study a tiny bit of its elliptical orbit. It's one of the youngest exoplanets scientists know of, and it's possible it has moons. "It has quite high temperatures, no liquid water, extremely powerful winds, and no surface; just below the uppermost layer of the atmosphere it rains liquid iron droplets," Daniel Apai of the University of Arizona, a co-author of the study, told USA Today. "Earth-like life — life as we know it — would be extremely unlikely, if not impossible, to exist in this atmosphere."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
Melting polar ice is messing with global timekeeping
Speed Read Ice loss caused by climate change is slowing the Earth's rotation
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The Week contest: Stick guitar
Puzzles and Quizzes
By The Week US Published
-
'Sports executives ushered a fox into the henhouse'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Melting polar ice is messing with global timekeeping
Speed Read Ice loss caused by climate change is slowing the Earth's rotation
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
An amphibian that produces milk?
speed read Caecilians, worm-like amphibians that live underground, produce a milk-like substance for their hatchlings
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
We're in the golden age of space exploration
In depth To infinity and beyond!
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
All the major moon landings so far
The Explainer One giant leap for mankind
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Jupiter's Europa has less oxygen than hoped
speed read Scientists say this makes it less likely that Jupiter's moon harbors life
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Why February 29 is a leap day
Speed Read It all started with Julius Caesar
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
US spacecraft nearing first private lunar landing
Speed Read If touchdown is successful, it will be the first U.S. mission to the moon since 1972
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Asteroid mining: the money to be made in space
The Explainer Some asteroids are valued at £100trn-plus but mining them is easier said than done
By Austin Chen, The Week UK Published