Gigantic Orbiting Planet Changes Everything We Thought We Knew About Solar Systems

Posted by: Steven Ahle Posted date: December 06, 2013 In: News, Uncategorized

A huge planet was just found that has the largest orbit of any planet we have ever found.  The planet is 11 times larger than Jupiter and it’s orbit is 650 times the size of the average orbit of the Earth.  The planet has been named HD 106906 and it exists in a bizarre solar system totally unlike any other we have witnessed and will not force scientists to reevaluate how solar systems are formed.
The most common theory on the formation of solar systems is that small asteroid like bodies collapse upon themselves to form an orbiting planet.  But planets such as HD 106906 are much too large to have been formed that way.  One theory is that two clumps of gas solidify to form planets, whose gravitation pulls bring them together and hold them together.  But in those cases the ratio of distance is generally 10-1 mor less but the ratio with this one would be over 100 to 1.
Another point of interest to scientists is the fact that leftover materials are still there from when the star and planet combined.  The planet is believed to be only 13 million years old and is still glowing from the residual heat created by the combining of the two bodies.
The planet was found using an infrared camera attached to the Magellan Telescope in Chile and was confirmed by the Hubble Telescope.