Astronomers find a famous exoplanet's doppelganger
Tuesday, July 17, 2018 - 11:00
in Astronomy & Space
A new planet has been imaged, and it appears nearly identical to one of the best studied gas-giant planets. But this doppelganger differs in one very important way: Its origin. One object has long been known: the 13-Jupiter-mass planet beta Pictoris b, one of the first planets discovered by direct imaging, back in 2009. The new object, dubbed 2MASS 0249 c, has the same mass, brightness, and spectrum as beta Pictoris b.