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<ul><li>Astronomers at California Planet Search have found a <keyword id="438857" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="New-Planet">new planet</keyword> that's three times the size of Jupiter in the outer reaches of the universe.</li><li>It took twenty years of observations to determine the planet's 'highly eccentric' orbit which sling-shots itself around its star.</li><li>The planet dubbed HR 5138 is the first exoplanet to exhibit such behaviour.</li></ul>The outer reaches of the universe holds many mysteries. But scientists from <a href="https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/newly-discovered-giant-planet-slingshots-around-its-star">California Planet Search</a> discovered an exotic planet which has a wonky 'sling-shot' like orbit which gets close to its star around its star before swinging around and getting further away. <keyword id="122247" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Exoplanets">Exoplanets</keyword> aren't known for planets that 'slingshot' around their stars but the planet dubbed HR 5183 b, which is three times the size of Jupiter, in an exception to the rule. In fact, it was the planet's weird path that caught the attention of astronomers at the <a href="http://www.keckobservatory.org/weird-orbit/">Keck Observatory</a>. It paved the way for the discovery of other giant planets that might be behaving in a similar manner. Instead of going around in a flat circle, HR 5138 b has an <keyword id="1731000" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="elliptical-orbit">elliptical orbit</keyword> that isn't equidistant from its star on all sides. 
 <div type="image" title="orbit lit" msid="70959666" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;HR 5138 b&amp;#39;s elliptical orbit&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>



 Twenty long years of waiting and watching It took 20 years of observations to figure out that the planet has an 'highly eccentric' orbit because it only circles its star every 45 to 100 years. "This planet spends most of its time loitering in the outer part of its star's planetary system in this highly eccentric orbit, then it starts to accelerate in and does a slingshot around its star," explains Andrew Howard, an astronomy professor at Caltech. If the planet was placed in our solar system, it would swing from our asteroid belt to beyond Neptune — covering approximately 3.7 million kilometers — according to a study published in <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1908.09925">The Astronomical Journal.</a> No influence Scientists initially assumed that the HR 5138 b's wonky orbit was because another planet might be exerting its gravitational influence. But that wasn't the case. They now believe that the planet probably had a neighbour of similar size. Both the planets would have originally had flat and circular orbits. But, getting too close to each other, one pushed the other out of the solar system causing the HR 5138's slingshot orbit. "This newfound planet basically would have come in like a wrecking ball — knocking anything in its way out of the system," said Howard. 
 <div type="Youtube" id="aPeoF8EGO8Q" title="The Strange Orbit of HR 5183 b" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aPeoF8EGO8Q/mqdefault.jpg"></div>



 See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/indias-top-space-agency-discovers-an-epic-planet-600-light-years-away/articleshow/64540798.cms">India's top space agency discovers an EPIC planet 600-light years away</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/a-new-dark-planet-on-nasas-radar-might-hold-the-key-to-what-makes-or-breaks-a-planet/articleshow/70768925.cms">A new 'dark' planet on NASA's radar might hold the key to what makes or breaks a planet</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/scavenger-hunt-for-planet-x-just-dropped-another-clue/articleshow/66072531.cms">Scavenger hunt for Planet X just dropped another clue</a>

A planet thrice the size of Jupiter discovered due to its 'strange orbit'

Astronomers have discovered more than 100 new trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), minor planets located in the far reaches of the solar system. For the study, published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, the researchers used data from Dark Energy Survey (DES), an international collaborative effort to map hundreds of millions of galaxies, detect thousands of supernovae, and find patterns of cosmic structure that will reveal the nature of the mysterious dark energy that is accelerating the expansion of our universe. The study also describes a new approach for finding similar types of objects and could aid future searches for the hypothetical Planet Nine and other undiscovered planets. "The number of TNOs you can find depends on how much of the sky you look at and what's the faintest thing you can find," said Gary Bernstein, Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in the US. Using the first four years of DES data, Pedro Bernardinelli from the University of Pennsylvania started with a dataset of seven billion "dots," all of the possible objects detected by the software that were above the image's background levels. He then removed any objects that were present on multiple nights - things like stars, galaxies, and supernova - to build a "transient" list of 22 million objects before commencing a massive game of "connect the dots," looking for nearby pairs or triplets of detected objects to help determine where the object would appear on subsequent nights. With the seven billion dots whittled down to a list of around 400 candidates that were seen over at least six nights of observation, the researchers then had to verify their results. "We have this list of candidates, and then we have to make sure that our candidates are actually real things," Bernardinelli said. To filter their list of candidates down to actual TNOs, the researchers went back to the original dataset to see if they could find more images of the object in question. Bernardinelli developed a way to stack multiple images to create a sharper view, which helped confirm whether a detected object was a real trans-Neptunian object. They also verified that their method was able to spot known trans-Neptunian objects in the areas of the sky being studied and that they were able to spot fake objects that were injected into the analysis. After many months of method-development and analysis, the researchers found 316 TNOs, including 245 discoveries made by DES and 139 new objects that were not previously published. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/two-new-planets-8-times-the-size-of-earth-could-support-life-and-theyre-right-next-door/articleshow/73288469.cms">Two new planets 8-times the size of Earth could support life — and they're right next-door</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/a-habitable-earth-sized-planet-discovered-but-its-sun-doesnt-set-for-over-two-weeks/articleshow/73133478.cms">Habitable earth-sized planet discovered but its Sun doesn't set for over two weeks</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/nasas-planet-hunter-uncovers-its-first-world-with-two-stars-1300-light-years-away/articleshow/73133158.cms">NASA's planet-hunter uncovers its first world with two stars 1,300 light-years away</a>

Over 100 new minor planets found at edge of solar system

You can now help discover new worlds beyond our solar system from the comfort of your home, thanks to a new citizen science platform called <keyword id="10034099" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="planet-patrol">Planet Patrol</keyword> launched by <keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword>. The Planet Patrol platform allows members of the public to collaborate with professional astronomers as they sort through a stockpile of star-studded images collected by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (<keyword id="1631115" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="TESS">TESS</keyword>). "Automated methods of processing TESS data sometimes fail to catch imposters that look like exoplanets," said project leader Veselin Kostov, a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. "The human eye is extremely good at spotting such imposters, and we need citizen scientists to help us distinguish between the look-alikes and genuine planets." Volunteers will help determine which TESS snapshots include signals from potential planets and which ones show planet impersonators, NASA said on Wednesday. TESS uses its four cameras to take full images of one patch of sky, called a sector, every 10 minutes for a month at a time. This long stare allows TESS to see when planets pass in front of their stars, or transit, and dim their light. Over the course of a year, TESS collects hundreds of thousands of snapshots, each containing thousands of possible planets -- too many for scientists to examine without help. On the new website, participants will help astronomers sift through TESS images of potential planets by answering a set of questions for each - like whether it contains multiple bright sources or if it resembles stray light rather than light from a star. These questions help the researchers narrow down the list of possible planets for further follow-up study. Citizen scientists can dive even deeper by learning more about the star in each image and by engaging with the Planet Patrol community, NASA said. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/defense/news/latest-updates-on-india-china-border-issue/articleshow/78162853.cms">India-China decide ‘early date’ needed for military talks on border issue — but stalemate continues</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/babri-masjid-demolition-case-cbi-special-court-acquits-all-accused-judge-says-demolition-was-not-pre-planned/articleshow/78401534.cms">Babri Masjid demolition case: CBI Special Court acquits all accused, judge says ‘demolition was not pre-planned’</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/rbi-records-its-largest-ever-current-account-surplus-but-thats-not-necessarily-a-good-thing/articleshow/78403696.cms">RBI records its largest-ever current account surplus — but that’s not necessarily a good thing</a>

NASA's new project will let you 'patrol' outer space for new planets

<ul><li>Hygiea, classified as an asteroid so far, might actually be a dwarf planet. </li><li>The European Southern Observatory has been able to confirm that Hygiea has a spherical shape. </li><li>But, Hygiea is missing a large impact crater normally found on asteroids after they have broken off from the parent asteroid. </li></ul>The asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars is home to many asteroids and planets. Now European Southern Observatory (<a href="https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1918/">ESO</a>) thinks one of the objects floating along the main belt might be the <keyword id="8270160" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="smallest-dwarf-planet">smallest dwarf planet</keyword> in our solar system — an asteroid known as Hygiea. Hygiea isn’t a new discovery but the fact that it meets the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) requirements to be classified as a dwarf planet is new. It orbits the Sun, and not another planet, so that rules it out from being a Moon. But unlike an actual planet, it hasn’t pushed away or pulled in any of the objects that are cluttering its orbit. ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) was able to capture a third detail that puts Hygiea in the running for a dwarf planet — it has just enough mass for its gravity to pull it together in a spherical shape. "Thanks to the unique capability of the SPHERE instrument on the VLT, which is one of the most powerful imaging systems in the world, we could resolve Hygiea’s shape, which turns out to be nearly spherical," said lead researcher Pierre Vernazza. Dwarf planets in the universe’s remnants When the big bang first happened and planets were formed, the asteroid belt basically contained whatever was left over. The clumps could have formed a planet but scientists believe that Jupiter’s gravity was so strong that the space objects continued to orbit the Sun instead, colliding every so often. These collisions led to bigger parent bodies breaking into smaller asteroids. Hygiea is supposed to be a part of a 7000 member family and it’s separation from the parent space object should have left a large impact crater — but it’s nowhere to be found. "This result came as a real surprise as we were expecting the presence of a large impact basin, as is the case on Vesta," says Vernazza. According to the team’s deductions, it’s possible that Hygiea’s parent asteroid collided into a large object between 75 to 150 kilometers wide and the resulting collision was so violent that it completely shattered it. Their study states that as the left-over pieces of the collision reassembled, Hygiea got its round shape — fulfilling the third parameter to be be classified as a dwarf planet. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/news/16-recently-discovered-exoplanets-could-offer-our-best-chance-of-finding-alien-life-outside-the-solar-system/articleshow/71397812.cms">16 recently discovered exoplanets could offer our best chance of finding alien life outside the solar system</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/a-ridiculous-yet-simple-animation-by-a-nasa-scientist-shows-how-long-it-takes-light-to-reach-pluto-if-you-plan-to-watch-it-take-a-day-off-work-/articleshow/67905830.cms">Pluto has a heart of ice that might not be so frozen after all</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/a-ridiculous-yet-simple-animation-by-a-nasa-scientist-shows-how-long-it-takes-light-to-reach-pluto-if-you-plan-to-watch-it-take-a-day-off-work-/articleshow/67905830.cms">A 'ridiculous' yet simple animation by a NASA scientist shows how long it takes light to reach Pluto. If you plan to watch it, take a day off work</a>

The smallest dwarf planet in our solar system was hiding in the asteroid belt

<ul><li>NASA's <keyword id="1228017" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Spitzer-Space-Telescope">Spitzer Space Telescope</keyword> has been observing a planet 48.6 light years away from Earth. </li><li>Dubbed LHS 3844b, the planet has no atmosphere but holds to key to understanding where scientists should be looking for signs on <keyword id="2255377" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="life-beyond-Earth">life beyond Earth</keyword>. </li><li>This is the first time that NASA has been able to observe a planet without an atmosphere that orbiting a red dwarf star.</li></ul>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/10-Mind-Bending-Photos-From-The-Spitzer-Telescope/articleshow/22106180.cms">Spitzer Space Telescope</a> has been observing a planet that’s 1.3 times larger than the Earth and 48.6 light years away. And, it completes its orbit in a mere 11 hours. But, it has one critical flaw — no atmosphere. The Earth’s atmosphere supports life — but not every planet has the same protective layer around it. It is especially true with planets that orbit small stars. Officially named LHS 3844b, it is the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/8-of-the-worlds-coolest-telescopes-that-are-changing-the-way-that-we-look-at-the-universe/slidelist/53305793.cms">first planet</a> without an atmosphere orbiting a red dwarf star, to ever be observed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (<a href="https://www.space.com/rocky-alien-planet-with-no-atmosphere-discovery.html">NASA</a>) after being spotted by the Transiting Exoplanet Satellite Survey (TESS) in 2018. What breaks or makes a planet The lack of an atmosphere around LHS 3844b may not be able to support life but it gives scientists some understanding around what kind of factors can make or break a planetary atmosphere — especially since we’re always on the hunt for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/Astronomers-have-discovered-a-potentially-habitable-world-just-31-light-years-away-thanks-to-NASAs-planet-hunting-telescope/articleshow/70473179.cms">habitable planets beyond our own Solar System.</a> "We've got lots of theories about how planetary atmospheres fare around M dwarfs, but we haven't been able to study them empirically," states Laura Kriedberg, a researcher at the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and lead author of the study. "Now, with LHS 3844b, we have a terrestrial planet outside our solar system where for the first time we can determine observationally that an atmosphere is not present," explains Kriedberg. Volcano and ashes Unlike most planets that are close to a star, LHS 3844b is actually ‘quite dark’, according to Renyu Hu, an exoplanet scientist with NASA and co-author of the study published in Nature. Spitzer and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have observed <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/Clouds-on-Uranus-smell-like-farts-astronomers-have-confirmed-a-clue-that-there-was-a-big-shakeup-early-in-the-solar-system/articleshow/63888299.cms">gas planets</a> and their atmospheres in the past, but this is the first time that they’ve used light — or lack thereof — to gather data about a planet. The fact that LHS 3844b doesn’t have an atmosphere makes it more like the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/nasa-discover-water-depletion-on-the-moon/articleshow/68902726.cms">Moon</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/the-fascinating-and-terrible-things-that-would-happen-to-you-if-you-tried-to-fly-on-jupiter-and-other-planets/Planes-use-the-air-on-Earth-to-generate-a-difference-in-pressure-below-and-above-the-wings-which-produces-lift-But-theres-no-atmosphere-on-Mercury-which-means-you-couldnt-even-glide-on-it-If-you-drove-the-plane-off-of-a-cliff-youd-fall-and-crash-like-this/slideshow/54705431.cms">Mercury</a> rather than the Earth. Even it’s surface is covered in volcanic residue similar to the material found on the lunar surface called mare. Hot and cold The similarities between LHS 3844b and the Moon don’t stop at both of them being covered in ancient volcanic ash. They both have a ‘<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/there-is-a-dark-side-of-the-moon-but-you-are-probably-using-the-term-incorrectly-all-of-the-time/articleshow/67400466.cms">dark side</a>’ as well. The Moon, in its orbit of Earth, always has one side that’s facing the planet and one side that’s permanently facing away. The same ‘tidal lock’ has been observed on the planet where its ‘dayside’ heats up 770 degrees Celcius and the ‘night side’ never faces the star. Because there’s no atmosphere — meaning no winds, no air and no movement — none of that heat gets dispersed around the planet and both sides continue to exhibit temperatures that are poles apart. Exceptional yet common Red dwarves themselves aren’t uncommon as the smallest and the coolest of the star categories. In fact, they make up three quarters of the stars in the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/the-supermassive-black-hole-at-the-center-of-our-galaxy-suddenly-lit-up-brighter-than-scientists-had-ever-seen-and-nobody-knows-why/articleshow/70684341.cms">Milky Way</a>. Despite their abundance, they aren’t as easy to observe. Flickering at around 1/10,000 of the Sun’s brightness, most of them are invisible to the naked eye. Because they’re so common, they’re also host to a majority of the planets in any particular galaxy, including our own. Understanding how they work and function is critical to figuring out where to look for life in the vast universe. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/our-very-own-black-hole-in-the-milky-way-doesnt-quite-eat-up-everything/articleshow/69684893.cms">Our very own black hole in the Milky Way doesn’t quite eat up ‘everything’</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/Astronomers-have-discovered-a-potentially-habitable-world-just-31-light-years-away-thanks-to-NASAs-planet-hunting-telescope/articleshow/70473179.cms">Astronomers have discovered a potentially habitable world just 31 light-years away, thanks to NASA's planet-hunting telescope</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/nasa-spots-marsquake-on-insight-lander-mission/articleshow/69018433.cms">NASA detects a quake on Mars for the very first time — using sound</a>

A new ‘dark’ planet on NASA’s radar might hold the key to what makes or breaks a planet

<ul><li>The number of distant planets around the sun has increased by 50% after this particular discovery. </li><li>The newly discovered world might help scientists tell the history of our solar system. </li><li>Possibilities of finding such planets in the outer ring of the solar system have further increased over the years thanks to special equipment. </li></ul>We all know that the universe is vast, but we don’t know exactly how vast it is. But humans don’t believe in giving up and their curiosity has led them to map our major parts of this celestial vastness with their powerful telescopes, satellites and spacecrafts. And the bigger truth is, despite spending billions of dollars behind space exploration, most of the universe is still uncharted and we keep discovering new things all the time. Recently, researchers <a href="http://www.ossos-survey.org/">discovered</a> and confirmed 840 small worlds in the hard-to-reach-space beyond Neptune. This is the single largest finding of planets and this discovery has increased the number of distant planets around the sun by 50%. Here’s all you need to know about what has been found: <ul><li>This discovery was a result of a five-year project known as the Outer Solar System Origins Survey (<a href="http://www.ossos-survey.org/">OSSOS</a>). By using cameras installed in the <keyword id="6593819" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="canada-france-hawaii-telescope">Canada France Hawaii Telescope</keyword> at <keyword id="6593818" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="waimea">Waimea</keyword> (Hawaii), researchers discovered 840 planets at distances between six and 83 Astronomical Units (AU). One AU is equal to the distance between the <keyword id="6359982" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="earth">Earth</keyword> and the Sun and it is the standard unit to measure distances between objects in our solar system.</li><li>The <keyword id="386682" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="new-planets">new planets</keyword> that were discovered were slotted into two categories:</li></ul> -- The objects that move in roundish orbits in the Kuiper belt (debris encircling the solar system). -- “Resonant” trans-Neptunian objects, which include Pluto. These planets were moved into their current elongated orbits during Neptune’s planetary migration away from the sun.<ul><li>These celestial objects which are also called “trans-Neptune objects” basically are ice cold worlds that might help scientists learn about the history of our solar system.</li><li>The new findings will help researchers map out all these minor planets that are no longer in the sun’s proximity, and thus figure out how larger planets, like the one we live on, were pushed into their current orbit.</li><li>These new discoveries have also opened up possibilities of finding more such undiscovered planets in the outer regions of the solar system.</li></ul>

840 new planets have been discovered beyond Neptune and its the single largest finding till date

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div>The seventh annual <a href="https://www.worldarchitecturefestival.com">World Architecture Festival wrapped up in Singapore last week</a>, and more than two dozen new buildings and planned projects received awards for their innovative design.
The overall winner was a chapel on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, with space for multiple uses that incorporated materials from the owners' previous projects.
Nearly 300 projects made the official 2014 shortlist, and a panel of architecture experts selected the winners across various categories.

The Best New Architecture On The Planet

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image">Copyright Eric Smerling</div></div></div>London's glassy Shard is the best new skyscraper in the world, according to the latest ranking from international building database Emporis.
The Renzo Piano-designed building was selected by a panel of international experts from more than 300 skyscrapers (at least 100 meters high) that were completed during the previous calendar year. 
The Shard has not been without its fair share of controversy: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/shard-pictures-lasers-2012-7">Londoners hated the building when it first </a>appeared on the city' skyline, and a design flaw in the building <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/guests-at-londons-shard-hotel-can-see-into-each-others-rooms-2014-5">apparently lets guests see into each other's rooms</a> at The Shard's Shangri-La Hotel.
Even so, the building is an impressive sight. "Construction of The Shard was complicated by the particularly tight site and therefore needed innovative planning," an Emporis jury member said. "This makes the result all the more impressive: A skyscraper that is recognized immediately and which is already considered London's new emblem."

The Best New Skyscrapers On The Planet

<div class="KonaFilter image-container full"><div class="image">Science@NASA and NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterHabitable zone planets (from left to right) Kepler-69c, Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f are shown here to scale relative to Earth.</div></div>A total of 715 new planets were recently found in our region of the Milky Way, almost doubling the number of exoplanets we know of. NASA announced the find, made using the Kepler space telescope and a revolutionary new technique, on February 27.
From the launch of the Kepler telescope in 2009 to 2011, scientists detected 3,600 potential planets. They detected the planets by measuring slight dips in the brightness of nearby stars as the planets passed in front of them like below:
<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image">NASA/Screenshot</div></div>
This was effective, but left the scientists with a new task - to confirm these are planets and not some other weird space event, they had to figure out how to distinguish the real planets from the fakes.
To do that, they used a new technique that they called "verification by multiplicity," which relies on probability. <a href="http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011400/a011466/index.html">Here's how NASA explains it </a>:
Kepler observes 150,000 stars, and has found a few thousand of those to have planet candidates. If the candidates were randomly distributed among Kepler's stars, only a handful would have more than one planet candidate. However, Kepler observed hundreds of stars that have multiple planet candidates. Through a careful study of this sample, these 715 new planets were verified.
Basically, they looked for clusters of candidate planets and stars and then sifted more closely to identify authentic planets. It's pretty brilliant.
Check out the change in the number of planet discoveries since they began using the new method:
<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image">NASA/Screenshot</div></div>
In the course of their search, the team found four planets in what they call the "habitable zone" - the range of distance from a star where the surface temperature of a planet may be suitable for water. Scientists are now attempting to determine whether the planets are gaseous planets (like Saturn) or water worlds (like Earth).
Here's what they think the planets look like, which were created based on the size of the planet and how far they think it is from its star:
<h2>Kepler-69c is 70% larger than Earth. It completes one orbit around its star every 242 days. <div class="KonaFilter image-container full"><div class="image">Science@NASA and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center</div></div>Kepler-62e is 60% larger than Earth. It completes one orbit around its star every 122 days.</h2>
<h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container full"><div class="image">Science@NASA and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center</div></div>Kepler-62f is 40 percent larger than Earth. It orbits a star located 1,200 light-years from our planet.</h2>
<h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container full"><div class="image">Science@NASA and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center</div></div>Kepler-296f orbits a star half the size and 5 percent as bright as our sun. Kepler-296f is twice the size of Earth.</h2>
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image">NASA</div></div></div>

Big, Beautiful Pictures Of 4 New Planets That Could Have Life On Them

YouTube/NBC New YorkWolf Cukier, the 17-year-old NASA intern who discovered a new planet on his third day on the job.<ul class="summary-list"><li>A 17-year-old intern at NASA discovered a new planet on his third day on the job.</li><li>Wolf Cukier, then a junior in high school, was interning at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland when he made the discovery.</li><li>The planet, since named <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/nasa-s-tess-mission-uncovers-its-1st-world-with-two-stars">TOI 1338 b</a>, is the first circumbinary planet to ever have been found at the agency. This means the planet orbits two stars instead of one.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">See Business Insider's homepage for more stories.;</a></li></ul>Seventeen-year-old Wolf Cukier was on the third day of his internship at NASA when he discovered a new planet previously unknown to scientists.<a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/nasa-s-tess-mission-uncovers-its-1st-world-with-two-stars">According to NASA</a>, the planet is the agency's first discovery of a "circuminary planet" - meaning it orbits two stars instead of one.The planet - which has been named TOI 1338 b - is almost seven times bigger than Earth, and is located 1,300 light years away in a constellation called Pictor.Cukier joined NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, as a summer intern after finishing his junior year at Scarsdale High School in New York State.He had been on a project searching for planets orbiting two stars, and tasked with examining the brightness and dimming through a NASA satellite telescope, a sign that could be an indication of a new planet, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfcTyuz8LWs">he told NBC New York</a>."About three days into my internship, I saw a signal from a system called TOI 1338," Cukier said in a statement published by NASA."At first I thought it was a stellar eclipse, but the timing was wrong. It turned out to be a planet."Cukier, a Star Wars fan, said the way stars appear on TOI 1338 b would be similar to Luke Skywalker's home of Tatooine, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-51122019">according to the BBC.</a>"It would also have a double sunset," he said.Star Wars UK/YouTubeLuke Skywalker at his home in Tatooine in the 1977 film "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope."Cukier is now back at high school, but told the BBC he hopes to go to college to study physics and astrophysics."From there, a career in space research is appealing," he said.<ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more:</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/space-breakthroughs-2019-exoplanets-solar-probe-2019-12?r=US&amp;IR=T">The biggest breakthroughs in space in 2019, from the farthest object ever visited to the first photo of a black hole</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gravitational-waves-new-class-of-collision-neutron-stars-2020-1?r=US&amp;IR=T">Scientists detected ripples in space and time from a potentially new class of collision in the universe. Their observatory cracked a 100-year-old mystery posed by Einstein.</a></li></ul> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/1-800-contacts-ceo-opportunities-disrupt-healthcare-2020-1">1-800 Contacts has been upending the healthcare industry for 25 years - CEO John Graham shares where he sees opportunities for further disruption</a></h3>

A 17-year-old intern at NASA discovered a new planet on his 3rd day on the job

<a href="http://astropix.ipac.caltech.edu/image/spitzer/ssc2008-05a">NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC-Caltech)</a>An illustration of Earth-like planets.<ul><li>NASA's has detected 219 possible new planets.</li><li>About 10 of these new worlds may be Earth-sized and habitable. </li><li>The Kepler space telescope that discovered the new planets has so far found more than 4,000 worlds.</li><li>The results suggest that there may be billions of Earth-like planets in the Milky Way galaxy.</li></ul>NASA scientists on Monday announced the discovery of 219 new objects beyond our solar system that are almost certainly planets.What's more, 10 of these worlds may be rocky, about the size of Earth, and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/worlds-most-like-earth-support-alien-life-2016-5">habitable</a>.The data comes from the space agency's long-running Kepler exoplanet-hunting mission. From March 2009 <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-kepler-spacecraft-planet-hunting-mission-is-over-2013-8">through May 2013</a>, Kepler stared down about 145,000 sun-like stars in a tiny section of the night sky near the constellation Cygnus.Most of the stars in Kepler's view were hundreds or thousands of light-years away, so there's little chance humans will ever visit them - or at least any time soon. However, the data could tell astronomers how common Earth-like planets are, and what the chances of finding <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/stephen-hawking-warning-space-aliens-seti-2016-12">intelligent extraterrestrial life</a> might be."We have taken our telescope and we have counted up how many planets are similar to the Earth in this part of the sky," Susan Thompson, a Kepler research scientist at the SETI Institute, said during a press conference at NASA Ames Research Center on Monday."We said, 'how many planets there are similar to Earth?' With the data I have, I can now make that count," she said. "We're going to determine how common other planets are. Are there other places we could live in the galaxy that we don't yet call home?"Added to Kepler's previous discoveries, the 10 new Earth-like planet candidates make 49 total, Thompson said. If any of them have stable atmospheres, there's even a chance they could harbor alien life.<h2>The new Earths next door?</h2><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-releases-kepler-survey-catalog-with-hundreds-of-new-planet-candidates">NASA/JPL-Caltech</a>Scientists wouldn't say too much about the 10 new planets, only that they appear to be roughly Earth-sized and orbit in their stars' "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/goldilocks-exoplanet-habitability-internal-heat-2016-8">habitable zone</a>" - where water is likely to be stable and liquid, not frozen or boiled away. That doesn't guarantee these planets are actually habitable, though. Beyond harboring a stable atmosphere, things like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/goldilocks-exoplanet-habitability-internal-heat-2016-8">plate tectonics</a> and not being <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/proxima-b-habitable-atmosphere-jwst-2016-9">tidally locked</a> may also be essential.However, Kepler researchers suspect that almost countless Earth-like planets are waiting to be found. This is because the telescope can only "see" exoplanets that transit, or pass, in front of their stars.The transit method of detecting planets that Kepler scientists use involves looking for dips in a star's brightness, which are caused by a planet blocking out a fraction of the starlight (similar to how the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-total-solar-eclipses-will-end-2017-6">moon eclipses the sun</a>). Because most planets orbit in the same disk or plane, and that plane is rarely aligned with Earth, that means Kepler can only see a fraction of distant solar systems. (Exoplanets that are angled slightly up or down are invisible to the transit method.)Despite those challenges, Kepler has revealed the existence of 4,034 planet candidates, with <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-releases-kepler-survey-catalog-with-hundreds-of-new-planet-candidates">2,335 of those</a> confirmed as exoplanets. And these are just the worlds in 0.25% of the night sky."In fact, you'd need 400 Keplers to cover the whole sky," Mario Perez, a Kepler program scientist at NASA, said during the briefing.The biggest number of planets appear to be a completely new class of planets, called "mini-Neptunes," Benjamin Fulton, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and California Institute of Technology, said during the briefing.Such worlds are between the size of Earth and the gas giants of our solar system, and are likely the most numerous kind in the universe. "Super-Earths," which are rocky planets that can be up to 10 times more massive than our own, are also very common.<a href="https://www.caltech.edu/news/new-branch-family-tree-exoplanets-discovered-78703">NASA/Kepler/Caltech (T. Pyle)</a>While just 49 of Kepler's thousands of planet candidates are Earth-sized and in a habitable zone, the discovery has rocked the scientific world: This could mean that billions of such worlds exist in the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-milky-way-galaxy-looks-like-2016-9">Milky Way galaxy</a> alone."This number could have been very, very small," Courtney Dressing, an astronomer at Caltech, said during the briefing. "I, for one, am ecstatic."<h2>Kepler's big back-up plan</h2><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/kepler/searching-for-far-out-and-wandering-worlds">NASA Ames/W. Stenzel and JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt</a>Kepler finished collecting its first mission's data in May 2013. It has taken scientists years to analyze that information because it's often difficult parse, interpret, and verify.Thompson said this new Kepler data analysis will be the last for this leg of the telescope's first observations. Kepler suffered two hardware failures (<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-kepler-telescope-from-emergency-mode-2016-4">and then some</a>) that limited its ability to aim at one area of the night sky, ending its mission to look at stars that are similar to the sun.But scientists' back-up plan, called <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014PASP..126..398H">the K2 mission</a>, kicked off in May 2014. It takes advantage of Kepler's restricted aim and uses it to study a variety of objects in space, including supernovas, baby stars, comets, and even asteroids. Although K2 is just getting off the ground, other telescopes have had success in these types of endeavors. In February, for example, a different one revealed the existence of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/earth-like-planets-seven-trappist-1-system-2017-02">seven rocky, Earth-size planets circling a red dwarf star</a>.NASA/JPL-CaltechAn illustration of what it might look like on the surface of TRAPPIST-1f, a rocky planet 39 light-years away from Earth.Such dwarf stars are the most common in the universe and can have more angry outbursts of solar flares and coronal mass ejections than sun-like stars.But paradoxically, they seem to harbor the most small, rocky planets in a habitable zone in the universe - and thus may be <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/red-dwarf-planets-proxima-b-aliens-2016-8">excellent places to look for signs of alien life</a>. <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/stephen-hawking-warning-space-aliens-seti-2016-12">Stephen Hawking warned us about contacting aliens, but this astronomer says it's 'too late'</a></h3> Please enable Javascript to watch this video

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