New Planet in Pisces Constellation Could be Twice the Mass of Jupiter

On a quest to find new exoplanets hosted by multi-star systems, researchers came up short, but they did discover a new planet that could be twice the mass of Jupiter located in the Pisces constellation.

Like our own solar system, the system that harbors the newfound planet consists of only one star, which astronomers say is an unexpected find, considering the high frequency of multiple star systems in our galactic neighborhood.

The new planet, which was discovered by a team led by Stephen Kane, an astronomer at San Francisco State University, was found during a survey of four star systems. Kane hoped the survey would have yielded evidence of at least one planetary body in a multi-star system, but that was not the case, which was surprising, Kane said.

"I thought we were likely to find stellar companions, and when all four didn't have a binary star, that did surprise me," Kane said, adding that although they came up short in their current quest for extrasolar planets located in multiple-star systems, "we know that they are there."

To date there have only been a handful of extrasolar planets have been found in multiple-star systems.

"There is a great interest in these stars that are known to host planets," Kane said, adding that it is suspected that planet formation in a multi-star system would be different than in a single-star system. A multiple-star system "might have not one but two planetary disks" where planets form, he said. "Or it could be that having an extra star would be disruptive, and its gravity could cause any protoplanets to pull apart."

Kane selected the four star systems for study because the planets already known in them had very eccentric orbits that swung away from their stars in an elliptical fashion, which might have been explained by the presence of another star in the system. However, it was that possibility was ruled out upon more careful observation of the systems.

But while studying the star systems, Kane and his colleagues did come across a previously unknown planet, which may be the silver lining in the the research. Kane suggests that the odd orbits of the planets in the systems he surveyed is now most likely explained by the presence of other planets in orbit in the star systems.

Kane said it was "very likely" that there are additional planets to be found in all four systems.

Despite coming up short on their goal, the resesarchers plan to publish their findings in the journal Earth and Planetary Astrophysics.