Signs Indicate the Presence of a New Hot Planet Near the Famous Star Vega
A possible searing-hot planet was spotted by astronomers, orbiting Vega, one of the brightest and most known stars in the sky.
Approximately the size of Neptune, the candidate alien planet lies very close to Vega, taking 2.5 Earth days to make a single orbit around its sun, and still requires follow-up observations or analyses to be confirmed as a planet.
This proximity to Vega results in the planet’s surface temperature being approximately 2,976 degrees Celsius (5,390 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the researchers’ calculations, granting it the title of the second-hottest planet known if it even exists, the hottest being KELT-9b with an overwhelming 4,300 degrees Celsius, or 7,800 degrees Fahrenheit.
Following studies of this potential planetary system are a real possibility given the mere distance of 25 light-years that separates Vega from Earth and how it sits relatively high in the northern sky. While attempting to confirm the Neptune-size world, scientists scout for possible planets around the famous star in the constellation Lyra.
The leading author of a new study announcing the Vega candidate planet, Spencer Hurt, states that this system is massive compared to our solar system.
Hurt, an undergraduate astronomy student at the University of Colorado, Boulder, added that other planets could exist throughout that system. It is only a matter of being able to detect them.
After observing ten years of data collected by the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in Arizona, the team members spotted a slight wobble in the star’s motion, suggesting that an orbiting planet is tugging on it gravitationally.
Astronomers hunted planets around Vega for many years. In 2013, evidence of a colossal asteroid belt circling the star was announced by astronomers, and they expressed hope that the discovery may eventually guide the way to spot planets. However, the discovery team added that confirming planets may have to wait until this October, after NASA’s powerful James Webb Space Telescope in the same month.
The brightness of Vega is immense, allowing professional telescopes to see the star in the sky even when it is daylight, favoring flexible observations. According to Hurt, to confirm the existence of the candidate planet, he and his colleagues are hoping to find direct light emissions from it in future studies.
In science fiction, vegan planets and aliens have been a staple through the years ranging from Isaac Asimov’s 1951 series “Foundation” to the “Star Trek: The Original Series” episode “The Cage” (first created in 1965 and first aired in 1988) to movies or television shows such as 1987’s “Spaceballs,” 1997’s “Contact” and “Babylon 5” (1993-98), among many others. Vega’s proximity to Earth is largely involved in its appeal in science and science fiction. Since our Milky Way galaxy alone is roughly 100,000 light-years across, twenty-five light-years can be considered small in cosmic terms. The star can be spotted with the naked eye, and during the summer months of the northern hemisphere, as a member of the Summer Triangle asterism, it rides high in the sky.
The new study was published March 2 in The Astrophysical Journal.
