The Universe Liked This Super Saturn So Much It Put Literally Every Ring On It
I'm not even sorry for using that old joke.
The team discovered a planet orbiting orange dwarf star J1407 about 116 light-years away, and it’s huge – like, way bigger than Jupiter – and its ring system is about 200 times larger than Saturn’s, about 112 million miles across. Professor of physics and astronomy Eric Mamajek straight up called it a “super Saturn” because people who discover rad things can call them whatever the heck the want, basically.
Back in 2007, the star underwent series of deep eclipses which they attributed to the planet’s ring system, and observed using something called the SuperWASP program, where ground-based telescopes can witness star dimming. It probably has nothing to do with insects or rich white people.
This planet is especially cool because they think this is what Saturn and Jupiter might have looked like a long time ago, with the ring systems eventually condensing into each planet’s moons. This is the first time scientists have witnessed a planet with a ring system at this stage.
Meanwhile, all Dan can think about is:
(via Time)
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