Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Proper names of planetary systems often follow common themes – for example, the planets of the star Copernicus are named after European astronomers. Proper names for planets outside of the Solar System – known as exoplanets – are chosen by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) through public naming contests known as NameExoWorlds.
The first planet discovered in a system is given the designation "b" (the parent star is considered to be "a") and later planets are given subsequent letters. If several planets in the same system are discovered at the same time, the closest one to the star gets the next letter, followed by the other planets in order of orbital size.
Planet Taphao Thong was discovered in 1996 and was one of the first exoplanets to be discovered. [48] The planet was the first long-period extrasolar planet discovered. The other planets were discovered later. [49] Nu 2 Lupi: Lupus: 15 h 21 m 49.57 s: −48° 19′ 01.1″ 5.65: 47: G2V: 0.906: 5664: 10.36: 3: One of the oldest stars in the ...
51 Pegasi b, officially named Dimidium / d ɪ ˈ m ɪ d i ə m /, is an extrasolar planet approximately 50 light-years (15 parsecs) away in the constellation of Pegasus.It was the first exoplanet to be discovered orbiting a main-sequence star, [3] the Sun-like 51 Pegasi, and marked a breakthrough in astronomical research.
But eventually more planets of other sorts were found, and it is now clear that hot Jupiters make up the minority of exoplanets. [64] In 1999, Upsilon Andromedae became the first main-sequence star known to have multiple planets. [67] Kepler-16 contains the first discovered planet that orbits a binary main-sequence star system. [68]
The first such project (NameExoWorlds I), in 2015, regarded the naming of stars and exoplanets. [1] 573,242 votes were submitted by members by the time the contest closed on October 31, 2015, and the names of 31 exoplanets and 14 stars were selected from these. [2] Many of the names chosen were based on world history, mythology and literature. [3]
PSR B1620-26 b is an exoplanet located approximately 12,400 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Scorpius.It bears the unofficial nicknames "Methuselah" and "the Genesis planet" (named after the Biblical character Methuselah, who, according to the Bible, lived to be the oldest person) due to its extreme age.
Astrometry has been used to discover a handful number of exoplanets, mostly gas giants more massive than Jupiter. It is based on measuring a star's proper motion, and seeing how that position changes over time: a planet with a sufficiently large mass is able to gravitationally pull its host star, making its proper motion vary over large timescales.