An artist’s impression of a large exoplanet orbiting a distant double star on a steeply inclined trajectory. Image: ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser
Using the exquisite resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope, researchers analysing 14 years of data have managed to characterise the 15,000-year orbit of a massive exoplanet slowly circling a double star some 336 light years away.
The planet is more than 730 times farther away from its parent stars than Earth is from the Sun, in a steeply inclined orbit well outside a dusty debris disc surrounding the double star. As it turns out, the orbit of the exoplanet, known as HD 106906b, is similar to the presumed path of a hypothesised “Planet Nine” in Earth’s solar system.