LOS ANGELES - Astronomers have discovered an unusual planet that challenges several widely held assumptions about the way solar systems work.
The planet, about 2,000 light-years away from us, is orbiting an unlikely star at an unlikely distance.
The find, reported Thursday in the online edition of the journal Science, also indicates that planets may be more common outside our own Milky Way galaxy than had been thought.
When astronomer Rainer Klement of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, began observing the planet, his expectations were low.
"To be honest, it started as kind of a fun project," he said.
The star, known as HIP 13044, originated in a small neighboring galaxy that merged with the Milky Way 6 billion to 9 billion years ago.
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The planet, called HIP 13044 b, appears to be a gas giant about 1.25 times more massive than Jupiter.
The most noteworthy thing about the planet, however, is that it exists at all. The aging star has already expanded into a red giant, the stage in which its outer shell expanded and engulfed everything in its path before running out of fuel and shrinking back down. A planet so close shouldn't stand a chance - and yet there was HIP 13044 b, still intact.
