(ORDO NEWS) — Astronomers using the SPHERE spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile have provided a direct image of an exoplanet orbiting the star AF Hare (AF Leporis).
AF Hare is a young star located 87 light-years from Earth and estimated to be only 24 million years old.
In the course of analyzing the data collected by the Hipparcos and Gaia spacecraft, two independent teams of researchers found deviations of the star from the calculated position and concluded that AF Hare has an invisible companion whose gravity affects the trajectory of the star.
To test the assumption, astronomers used the SPHERE spectrograph. And their observations were crowned with success.
The researchers managed to capture the exoplanet in the vicinity of AF Hare. It turned out to be a recently formed gas giant, whose mass is about four times that of Jupiter.
In its basic physical characteristics, AF Hare resembles the Sun. Studying the system of this star can help astronomers understand the features of the formation of the solar system.
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