Of all the planets in our solar system, none go farther out than Neptune at 2.795 billion miles, not counting the few hundred dwarf planets just beyond it. But in the HD 106906 system, something very, very strange is going on. The star's planet, HD 106906b, is more than 60 billion miles from its host star, and kicked up a massive stream of comets to get there.

The distance from the Earth to the Sun is 1 astronomical unit, or 93 million miles. HD 106906b is 650 astronomical units (AU) from its host star. There's no real comparison for that distance in the solar system, save a handful of very, very strange objects. There's Sedna, a dwarf planet that goes anywhere between 76 AU and 967 AU from the sun. Another newly discovered object called V7744104 may go that far out. Maybe.

But those objects are small – smaller even than Pluto, the largest dwarf planet. HD 106906b, on the other hand, is larger and 11 times more massive than Jupiter. While there have been hints to a Neptune or smaller sized world clear out there, nothing as yet has been discovered – and anything that large in our own solar system has been ruled out. What's more, our solar system is 4.5 billion years old. HD 106906 is a young star, only 13 million years old, meaning its planet is just a shade younger. But already, something kicked it out from the inner solar system to the outer reaches.

HD 106906b was discovered by the Gemini Planet Imager, and could be directly imaged because it still glows hot from its formation. Along the trail the planet cut were a number of comets kicked into the inner solar system.

We may have an example to go on to figure out what happened. Which is to say, Jupiter the bully probably kicked out another gas giant from our own early solar system, and ate a few super-Earths while it was at it.

The results, published in the Astrophysical Journal, could help piece together our own early solar system. (Preprint available here.) The hunt is still on for other planets in the system, which may help create a better understanding of what happened to the massive planet sitting at the outskirts of the system.





Source: Berkeley

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io