Astronomers have said the largest known solar system is unfathomably huge since it consists of a gas giant that is located so far away from its host star that until recently no one knew that it had a host star. The planet (2MASS J2126–81409) needs nearly 1 million years to complete an orbit around its stars, scientists said.
Astronomers have realized that the planet and the distant star form a single solar system when they noticed that the two’s motions were in sync. According to recent calculations, 2MASS J2126–81409 is located at about 1 trillion kilometers away from its star.
The pair was identified about a decade ago, but no one knew that the two were somehow connected due to the enormous distance between them. Researchers explained that the planet is so huge that its mass is up to 15 times greater than Jupiter’s, which is 2.5 times more massive than all our solar system’s inhabitants combined.
2MASS J2126–8140 is found 100 light-years from our planet. Niall Deacon, one of the scientists who found that the two remote space bodies form a solar system, explained that though the two were discovered eight years ago, no one realized there was an association between them. Deacon noted that apparently the planet is lonely, when in fact it is in a ‘very long distance relationship’ with its host star.
Astronomers found that the pair is the widest ever found since the distance between them is 6,900 times the distance from our planet to the sun, or 6,900 astronomical units (A.U.). Because of the huge gap, 2MASS J2126–8140 needs 900,000 years to completely revolve around its star.
Researchers also noted that it is highly unlikely for the gas giant to host life since its star is so far away that it would not look any different than any other stars on the planet’s night sky. This is why, the temperatures on the planet’s surface are so frigid that any life form would instantly freeze to death.
The research team said that they discovered the solar system when they compared the two space bodies’ orbits. It was then when they realized that the two were actually moving together.
Simon Murphy at the Australian National University explained that the two can form a solar system because there is no disruptive factor around them. For instance, if another star were nearby, it would have messed up their orbit entirely.
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