In addition to Fomalhaut b, researchers this week unveiled infrared photographs of a multi-planet system orbiting the star HR 8799.
New Scientist reports:
The planetary trio orbits the star HR 8799, which sits 130 light years away in the constellation Pegasus. The most distant planet in the group is roughly 7 times the mass of Jupiter and sits 68 astronomical units away from its host star (1 AU is the distance between the Earth and Sun).
Two larger planets, each estimated to weigh 10 Jupiters, orbit closer in - at 24 and 38 AU away from the star. A disc of dusty debris, similar to the solar system's icy Kuiper belt
, surrounds the entire system.
Like other photographed planetary candidates, HR 8799's three planets weigh close to 13 Jupiters, a mass thought to separate planets from failed stars called brown dwarfs.
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