'Zombie' Planet's Rogue Orbit Around Star Shocks Scientists

by Tariq Malik, SPACE.com Managing Editor

Date: 09 January 2013 Time: 01:30 AM ET

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This false-color composite image, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, reveals the orbital motion of the planet Fomalhaut b. Based on these observations, astronomers calculated that the planet is in a 2,000-year-long, highly elliptical orbit. Image released Jan. 8, 2013. CREDIT: NASA, ESA, and P. Kalas (University of California, Berkeley and SETI Institute) View full size image

The unbalanced orbit of a so-called "zombie planet" in a dusty star system has astronomers struggling to explain the exoplanet's behavior.

New observations of the planet Fomalhaut b by the Hubble Space Telescope revealed the oddball orbit, which has wild extremes between its closest and farthest points from the parent star and appears to cross through a vast minefield of dusty debris.

"We are shocked. This is not what we expected," said study leader Paul Kalas, an astronomer with the University of California at Berkeley and the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., in a statement Tuesday (Jan. 8).

More - Link >>> http://www.space.com/19187-zombie-planet-shocking-orbit.html

Source: Space.com .

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