An international team of scientists led by Professor Sacha Hinckley from the University of Exeter
Researchers have confirmed the presence of a distant planetusing the GRAVITY Very Large Telescope instrument, which uses optical interferometry to synchronize the VLT's four main telescopes so that they operate as one large observatory.
Studies have shown that the recently discoveredthe planet is showing an apparent “brightening” due to the fact that it is undergoing nuclear fusion by burning deuterium or heavy hydrogen in its core, the scientists write.
Scientists first discovered a brown dwarfknown as HD206893B orbiting its parent star in 2017. However, long-term monitoring with the ESO HARPS instrument, as well as accurate measurements of the motion of the parent star using the Gaia mission, showed that there is another object with a lower mass in the system.
Using the GRAVITY tool, scientists have foundthat this is a new planet. It has been named HD206893c and orbits at a distance of about 483 million km from its parent star. It's about halfway between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter in the solar system. At the same time, the mass of the planet is greater than that of the gas giant.
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Cover illustration: NASA