Rare Exoplanet Discovered With 300-Year Orbit Around Twin Stars

In a groundbreaking discovery, astronomers have identified a rare exoplanet that defies expectations, boasting a 300-year-long year and orbiting a pair of stars. Catalogued as HD 143811 AB b, this extraordinary planet resides 446 light-years from Earth, offering scientists a unique opportunity to study planetary evolution in a binary star system.

The planet’s remarkable characteristics were unveiled through a meticulous analysis of archival observations by Jason Wang, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern University, and his team. By re-examining data collected over eight years by the Gemini South telescope, they detected a faint object’s consistent motion corresponding to its host star, a crucial indicator of a planet.

This gas giant, roughly six times Jupiter’s size, still retains some of the heat from its formation, making it a 13-million-year-old “newborn” in astronomical terms. The discovery was validated by an independent conclusion from researchers at the University of Exeter, underscoring the challenges in detecting such distant worlds.

The system’s configuration, with planets circling twin stars, is already uncommon, and spotting one through direct imaging is even rarer. This finding provides scientists with a rare chance to understand how planets evolve in environments with two gravitational anchors instead of one.