A sunlike star with multiple exoplanets

For the first time, an exoplanet family around a sunlike star has had its portrait taken. Astronomers used the Very Large Telescope in Chile to snap a photo of two giant planets orbiting a young star with about the same mass as the sun, researchers report July 22 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The star, called TYC 8998-760-1, is about 300 light-years away in the constellation Musca. At just 17 million years old, the planetary family is a youngster compared with the 4-billion-year-old solar system.

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Credit: Bohn et al/ESO

The star TYC 8998-760-1 (top center) was photographed with two giant exoplanets (arrows), the first time astronomers have directly imaged more than one planet orbiting a sunlike star. The bright spots above star TYC 8998-760-1 are other stars in the background.

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Credit: ESO/L.Calçada/spaceengine.org

ESO: A ‘fly to’ TYC 8998-760-1

The SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope has captured the first ever image of a young, Sun-like star accompanied by two giant exoplanets, located about 300 light-years away from Earth. This video takes us on a journey to this system.

ESO: View of the orbit of two exoplanets around TYC 8998 760 1

The SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope has captured the first ever image of a young, Sun-like star accompanied by two giant exoplanets, located about 300 light-years away from Earth.

This animation shows the orbits of the two exoplanets, compared with the size of Pluto’s orbit. (Note that the yellow circle does not represent Pluto’s real orbit, but rather the size of the orbit, which is calculated based on the dwarf planet's average distance to the Sun.)