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'Cousin' planets discovered around Twin stars

The discovery of two new Jupiter-sized extra-solar planets

London: A new research has revealed about the discovery of two new Jupiter-sized extra-solar planets around Twin stars.

Research at Keele University showed that for the first time, two stars, WASP-94A and WASP-94B, of a binary system are both found to host a "hot Jupiter" exoplanet.

Marion Neveu-VanMalle (Geneva Observatory), who wrote the announcement paper, explained that they observed the other star by accident and then found a planet around that one also.

The existence of huge, Jupiter-size planets so near to their stars is a long-standing puzzle, since they cannot form near to the star where it is far too hot and they must form much further out, where it is cool enough for ices to freeze out of the proto-planetary disk circling the young star, hence forming the core of a new planet.

Researcher Coel Hellier said that WASP-94 could turn into one of the most important discoveries from WASP-South and the two stars are relatively bright, making it easy to study their planets, so WASP-94 could be used to discover the compositions of the atmospheres of exoplanets.

( Source : ANI )
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