Scorching-hot planet candidate spotted around famous star Vega
By Elizabeth Howell 4 hours ago
But the potential world still needs to be confirmed.
The bright star Vega as seen in two views from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Scientists have detected signs of scorching-hot a Neptune-sized exoplanet orbiting the star. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)
Astronomers have spotted a possible searing-hot planet orbiting Vega, one of the brightest and most famous stars in the sky.
The candidate alien planet, which still needs to be confirmed by follow-up observations or analyses, is roughly the size of Neptune and lies very close to Vega. It takes only 2.5 Earth days for the purported planet to make a single orbit around its sun.
Thanks to that proximity, the candidate planet's surface temperature is probably around 5,390 degrees Fahrenheit (2,976 degrees Celsius), researchers calculated. That would make it the second-hottest planet known, if it does indeed exist. (The hottest, KELT-9b, is a whopping 7,800 degrees Fahrenheit, or 4,300 degrees C.)
Vega lies a mere 25 light-years from Earth and sits relatively high in the northern sky, so follow-up studies of this potential planetary system are a real possibility. Scientists will seek to confirm the Neptune-size world and also hunt for other possible planets around the famous star, which is in the constellation Lyra.
More:
https://www.space.com/alien-planet-candidate-vega-star
