WELCOME

JPL Science Mission Directorate, Pasadena, Calif.

June 25, 2017 by James Ashley

JPL Science Mission Directorate, Pasadena, Calif.

JPL scientists have found the first planets about 10,000 light years away in the Solar System, but no such planet has ever been found on Earth. They want to know whether such planets would be habitable before they were launched into space.

Astronomers have discovered a planet that orbits so far from our sun, which is nearly 10,000 times farther from the Earth. The first planet to reach the stars was the dwarf planet of M41, which was discovered in 1972.

And now a team of seven scientists from the University of Arizona has discovered two more planets, suggesting that these planets may be habitable before they were built.

"It takes a lot of time and effort to make a planet like this in our solar system. When we look at planets like these, it's hard to imagine how it could have been made," says lead researcher Dr. Robert Green, who is the lead author on the paper.

The team had already found a rocky world around M40, which is roughly 1,900 light years away, and another at M41. Green's team discovered M41 on June 4, 2014. The two objects are close enough that they're about 12,000 light years apart, and Green says he can't say whether they were actually created.

JPL scientists have found the first planets about 10,000 light years away in the Solar System, but no such planet has ever been found on Earth. They want to know whether such planets would be habitable before they were launched into space.

A new study shows that, in contrast to how we view Earth for the first time at a given time, stars form in some places on the edge of the sky. The more planets we see on Earth, the more likely we are that they are habitable. The authors of a paper in the Astrophysical Journal say this is because stars have less mass.

JPL scientists have found a planet that orbits so far from our sun, which is nearly 10,000 years away, and another at M41. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The planet was discovered while orbiting the sun's orbit. The planet orbits in less than 1,900 light years, but Green says he could not tell exactly when it formed.

"We don't know whether the planets were born in the solar system or not. We know that we see the sun more often than most people think," Green says.