Two New Planets Very Similar to Jupiter and Neptune Found!

A group of scientists working at the University of Sao Paulo have discovered two extraordinarily similar planets to Jupiter and Neptune around a star called HIP 104045. These planets can help provide brand new information about the Solar System.

HIP 104045 is important because it is very similar to the Sun. The star, estimated to be 4.5 billion years old (the Sun is also 4.6 billion years old), is similar in size to the Sun. In this context; With a mass of 1.03 times the Sun, 1.11 times the luminosity and 1.03 times the radius, the star is almost a copy of the Sun. For this reason, astronomers were also expressing that there could be a potential Earth around this star. But the discovered planets look more like gas giants Jupiter and Neptune than Earth.

The planets are unlikely to have life, but one is in the habitable zone.

*Jupiter in our Solar System

Of the two planets discovered, the ‘Jupiter replica’ has a mass of 0.498 times Jupiter, or nearly half that, despite being similar in size. The planet, which is close to Jupiter in the Solar System in terms of its orbit, generally contains gas. The Neptune-like planet is 2.5 times larger than Neptune and is gas-based, just like the Jupiter-like planet. Scientists say that this planet, which they call super-Neptune, is in the “habitable zone” of HIP 104045.

The planets detected by the HARPS telescope located in Chile can provide important information about understanding how the Earth was formed and about the Solar System. Because experts state that there may be another planet, which is a copy of the Earth, around HIP 104045.