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The Largest Solar System Ever Found is Unbelievably Massive
The Largest Solar System Ever Found is Unbelievably Massive
Sep 21, 2024 9:51 PM

An artist's impression of 2MASS J2126.

(University of Hertfordshire/Neil Cook)

Once considered a homeless planet, left to travel the galaxy aimlessly, it turns out that giant planet 2MASS J2126 has a home after all.

2MASS J2126 just sits really, really, really far away from the star it orbits. Try from it, says Popular Science.

Sitting about 104 light years away from Earth, 2MASS J2126 is estimated at a massive around its parent star, according to Gizmag.

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For reference, the average separation between Pluto and the sun is about 40 astronomical units, which pales in comparison to the distance between 2MASS J2126 and its star, a red dwarf named TYC 9486-927-1. The distance between the two? 7,000 astronomical units, which , according to Space.com.

" and both the members of it have been known for eight years, but nobody had made the link between the objects before,” said Dr. Deacon, lead author of the Royal Astronomical Society study. “The planet is not quite as lonely as we first thought, but it's certainly in a very long distance relationship."

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The odds of life existing on the once considered homeless planet are very low, and even if there were some life form to observe the sky, TYC 9486-927-1 would just appear as a bright star in the sky. Any relationship to the star would be nearly impossible to realize.

Exactly how the massive solar system formed remains a mystery, but scientists suggest it wasn’t like that of our solar system.

"How such a wide planetary system forms and survives remains an open question," said Dr. Simon Murphy, a co-author of the study.

MORE ON WEATHER.COM: The First Flower Grown in Space

International Space Station Commander Mark Kelly recently tweeted this picture of the first flower grown in space. (Mark Kelly/NASA)

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