By Marcia Dunn
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Astronomers Wednesday reported the discovery of what may be two planets sharing the same orbit around a star.
they are Strongest evidence ever This strange cosmic combination has long been suspected, but never proven.
A Spanish-led team used a Chilean telescope to discover a cloud of debris in the same orbit as a planet already identified around this star in the constellation Centaurus, 370 light-years away. They suspect it may be a planet in formation or the remnants of a once-existing planet.
Asteroids are known to accompany planets around their stars. For example, Jupiter and its so-called planets. Trojan asteroids. But the planets in the same orbit “are unicorn-like so far,” said study co-author Jorge Lilovox of the Madrid Center for Astrobiology.
“In theory they are allowed to exist, but no one has ever detected them,” he said in a statement.
Scientists said we’ll have to wait until 2026 to properly track the two bodies around the star known as PDS 70.
The planet Tuggalong is confirmed to take 119 years to orbit. A gas giant that is three times the size of Jupiter. Another gas giant is known to orbit this star, albeit from a great distance.
Olga Barsalobre Luza, lead author of the Center for Astrobiology in Madrid, said the findings, published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, were “first evidence” that such a dual world could exist.
“I can imagine a planet being able to share orbits with thousands of asteroids, as is the case with Jupiter, but it’s amazing to me that a planet can share the same orbit,” she said in a statement.
___
The Associated Press’ Health Sciences Division is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. AP is solely responsible for all content.
