Astronomers have discovered a Jupiter-like planet with one of the strangest orbit’s ever observed. This exoplanet not only follows one of the most drastically stretched-out orbits of all known transiting exoplanets but is also orbiting its star backwards. This animation shows the orbit in comparison to the orbits of Mercury and Earth. It is named TIC 241249530 b and was spotted using the Wynn telescope at NSF’s Kitt Peak National Observatory – a program of NSF Noir Lab. This extreme orbit would cause temperatures on the planet to vary between that of a summer’s day to hot enough to melt titanium.
Images and Videos: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/KPNO/R. Proctor/J. da Silva/Spaceengine/M. Zamani/ESO/L. Calçada/M. Kornmesser/N. Bartmann
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Strange Exoplanet Discovery
