Make New York Post a Preferred Source Astronomers have potentially located a planet called HD 156295 b in the habitable zone of the hottest star ever discovered. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientists are starstruck by this latest discovery.
Astronomers broke major ground in their hunt for new worlds after potentially locating a giant, habitable planet near the hottest star ever discovered.
The researchers detailed their luminous find in an article published in the Astrophysical Journal.
A plot detailing stars’ level of pulsation. Logan G. Wilson et al The star in question, dubbed HD 156295, is notably hotter than the Sun on its surface, which burns at a face-melting 13,500 degrees Fahrenheit compared to around 10,000 F for our solar star, Science Alert reported.
Located just 140 light-years from Earth, the bluish-white entity is also twice as big and nine times more luminous, making it visible to the naked eye.
Despite its scorching temperatures, the star harbors a potential planet dubbed HD 156295 b in its habitable zone, where conditions could theoretically allow water to exist.
“If confirmed, HD 156295 would be the hottest star to host a habitable-zone planet,” the researchers wrote of the planet.
If this parallel world is real, it’s unlikely it would be hospitable to life.
Graphic detailing the A-type stars. Logan G. Wilson et al Far from an Earth analog, this gas giant is projected to be six times bigger than Jupiter while its distance from its home star is approximately 4 times the span between Earth and the sun.
It also orbits its stellar centerpiece once every 2,200 days, meaning that the theoretical inhabitants would only get a Birthday once every six years.
To find this potential exoplanet — a world that is situated outside our solar system — the team had to conduct a serious star search.
They reportedly pored over 16,500 such Delta Scuti stars — a stellar body that pulsates in brightness like a cosmic metronome — using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which helps scan the cosmos for these intergalactic entities.
Using this novel technique, the researchers managed to narrow down the field to nine star systems, including one that harbored HD 156295 b.
They then deployed a detection method called pulsation timing, which measures variations in the length of time it takes for the star’s light to reach us like an interstellar stethoscope.
Thankfully, HD 156295 had a steady heartbeat, so to speak, allowing scientists to pinpoint irregularities in its celestial cadence that were potentially caused by the gravitational pull of another body like a planet.
Unfortunately, this so-called Earth analog remains purely theoretical.
Researchers placed the probability of HD 156295 b’s existence at just over 50%, akin to a coin toss, according to NOVA.
Nonetheless, this discovery would be significant as only a fraction of the 6,300 known exoplanets orbit super-luminous and hot A-class stars like HD 15629.
