Gas Giant

The giant and the dwarf Astrophysics

The giant and the dwarf

Size alone is not always the most important factor. Sometimes, large things also orbit small things – because the details of a system matter. Astronomers have now found a real example for this situation in space, about 80 light-years from us, using the TESS telescope. The discovery published in Nature shows the likely presence of a planet the size of Jupiter orbiting the white dwarf, WD 1856+534, once every 34 hours. “This planet is roughly the size of Jupiter, but it also has a very short orbital period – one year on this planet is only 1.4 days long, so…