Astronomers think they may have photographed their first planet orbiting a star similar to our Sun. The star is 500 light years distant, and has about 85 percent of the Sun's mass.
The planet is a strange one, however. At about eight times the mass of Jupiter, it seems to orbit the star at 330 times Earth's distance from the Sun. By comparison, Neptune orbits at only about 30 times that distance. Not only is such a huge world at such a huge distance unprecedented, so far, but it's unclear how such a body could reach that size that far from the parent star, according to current models of solar system formation.
The planet is also hot-- 1500 degrees Kelvin. That may suggest the body is closer to being a brown dwarf-- a failed star-- than a planet.
Designation of this body as a planet may be reconsidered in the years ahead.
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