New Gas Giant Exoplanet Three Times More Massive Than Jupiter Discovered

An international team of astronomers just recently discovered a new gas giant exoplanet that is three times more massive than the planet Jupiter. It is designated as OGLE-2014-BLG-0676Lb.

The finding of the discovery was printed on arXiv.org on Dec. 12, 2016. The new exoplanet was detected by microlensing technique. This technique is the most sensitive when it comes to searching for exoworlds that orbit around 1 AU to 10 AU away from their host stars. The microlensing already identified 47 planets.

In the study, the new exoplanet has a mass of about 3.1 Jupiter masses and orbits its parent star at a deprojected orbital separation of about 4.4 AU. This star is estimated to be about 38 percent less massive than the Sun and categorized as a K-dwarf. It is about 7,200 lightyears away.

The researchers also discovered that the source star is rather faint and very red. This could possibly be blended with a nearby red star, causing an incorrect identification of the source star type, according to Phys.org.

Astronomers discover new gas giant #exoplanet https://t.co/0XsZDk53rE

— Phys.org (@physorg_com) December 14, 2016

The scientists stated that OGLE-2014-BLG-0676Lb could be a test bed for planet formation scenarios. They further explained that planet OGLE-2014-BLG-0676Lb could be added to the growing list of planets that is detected by microlensing against which planetary formation theories can be tested.

An exoplanet or also referred to an extrasolar planet is a planet that revolves around a star other than the Sun. There have been 3,545 exoplanets in 2,660 planetary systems and 597 multiple planetary that have been discovered as of Dec. 6, 2016.

The discovery of exoplanets leads to search for extraterrestrial life. A planet that revolves around a star's habitable zone would possibly have liquid water, in which it is a prerequisite for life on Earth.