Saturday, August 9, 2025
News Health
  • Health News
  • Hair Products
  • Nutrition
    • Weight Loss
  • Sexual Health
  • Skin Care
  • Women’s Health
    • Men’s Health
No Result
View All Result
  • Health News
  • Hair Products
  • Nutrition
    • Weight Loss
  • Sexual Health
  • Skin Care
  • Women’s Health
    • Men’s Health
No Result
View All Result
HealthNews
No Result
View All Result
Home Health News

A planet the size of Saturn could orbit the nearest Sun-like star

August 8, 2025
in Health News
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


Artistic concept of what the gas giant orbiting Alpha Centauri A could look like

ESA/Webb Copyright: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, R. Hurt (Caltech/IPAC)

A giant planet the size of Saturn orbiting a sun-like star has potentially been identified in our nearest neighbouring stellar system, Alpha Centauri.

At just four light years from Earth, Alpha Centauri is our closest star system. It is made up of three stars: Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B and a red dwarf star, Proxima Centauri. Researchers have long speculated Alpha Centauri could be home to a planet about as far away from a star as the Earth is to our sun – the liquid-water-friendly “habitable zone” – but confirming if any exists around the binary stars has proved challenging. That is because “[the stars] are so bright, close, and move across the sky quickly”, said Charles Beichman at the California Institute of Technology in a statement.

But recent data collected by the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) suggests a gas giant as big as Saturn may have been found orbiting Alpha Centauri A, a sun-like star. The finding came as somewhat of a surprise. “Webb was designed and optimised to find the most distant galaxies in the universe,” said Beichman, not exoplanets. He said finding this planet required meticulous planning, involving multiple observations, analysis and computer modelling, which “paid off spectacularly”.

While previous strategies to find planets have relied on indirect measurements, JWST did something “much more ambitious” by directly capturing the light from the possible planet, says Alan Boss at Carnegie Science in Washington DC, who was not involved in the study. However, the potential planet wasn’t visible in later observations.

“We are faced with the case of a disappearing planet!” said Aniket Sanghi, also at Caltech, in a statement. The team simulated millions of potential orbits to investigate this mystery. “We found that in half of the possible orbits simulated, the planet moved too close to the star and wouldn’t have been visible to Webb in both February and April 2025”, when the later observations were made, he said.

As a gas giant, it could not support life as we know it. However, if confirmed, the finding could have major implications for our understanding of how planets form around stars. “Its very existence in a system of two closely separated stars would challenge our understanding of how planets form, survive, and evolve in chaotic environments,” said Sanghi. “It’s also the most similar in temperature and age to the giant planets in our solar system, and nearest to our home, Earth.”

The finding was announced in a pair of papers that have been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Topics:



Source link : https://www.newscientist.com/article/2491840-a-planet-the-size-of-saturn-could-orbit-the-nearest-sun-like-star/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home

Author :

Publish date : 2025-08-08 20:56:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.

Previous Post

KRAS Inhibitor Reduces Progression Risk in Pretreated Lung Cancer

Next Post

Novel Drug for HER2-Mutant Lung Cancer Wins FDA Approval

Related Posts

Health News

RFK Jr.’s Vow to ‘Fix’ Vaccine Injury Program Echoes Grievances of Anti-Vaxxers

August 9, 2025
Health News

CDC Buildings Hit by Gunfire

August 9, 2025
Health News

Oddly viscous stars could be impersonating black holes

August 8, 2025
Health News

Trump Order Gives Political Appointees Review of Scientific Grants

August 8, 2025
Health News

Brain Autopsies Suggest MIND Diet Reduces Pathology

August 8, 2025
Health News

FDA Restricts Gene Therapy Skysona Due to Blood Cancer Risk

August 8, 2025
Load More

RFK Jr.’s Vow to ‘Fix’ Vaccine Injury Program Echoes Grievances of Anti-Vaxxers

August 9, 2025

CDC Buildings Hit by Gunfire

August 9, 2025

Oddly viscous stars could be impersonating black holes

August 8, 2025

Trump Order Gives Political Appointees Review of Scientific Grants

August 8, 2025

Brain Autopsies Suggest MIND Diet Reduces Pathology

August 8, 2025

FDA Restricts Gene Therapy Skysona Due to Blood Cancer Risk

August 8, 2025

FDA Approves Zongertinib for HER2-Mutated NSCLC

August 8, 2025

Novel Drug for HER2-Mutant Lung Cancer Wins FDA Approval

August 8, 2025
Load More

Categories

Archives

August 2025
MTWTFSS
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
« Jul    

© 2022 NewsHealth.

No Result
View All Result
  • Health News
  • Hair Products
  • Nutrition
    • Weight Loss
  • Sexual Health
  • Skin Care
  • Women’s Health
    • Men’s Health

© 2022 NewsHealth.

Go to mobile version