The international team of astronomers led by prof. Andrzej Niedzielski from the NCU Centre for Astronomy has discovered a very exotic planet, so-called hot Jupiter, at a very old star, almost twice as massive as the Sun. This is the twentieth planetary system discovered by astronomers from the NCU.
The host star, named TYC 3667-1280-1, is the so-called red giant. It is an object with a diameter of six times larger and 30 times brighter than the Sun. It is located in the Cassiopeia constellation, about 1,600 light-years away from the Sun. Its mass is more than five times bigger than Jupiter's, and revolves around its star at a very close orbit - its "year" lasts only 26.5 days. Temperature is about 1,100 degrees Celsius on this gas planet. Such planets are extremely rare. That planet discovered by the NCU scientists is the only one known at such a massive star.
This is the twentieth planetary system discovered by the team headed by Prof. Niedzielski. All research leading to these discoveries has been made using the 10-metre Hobby-Eberly telescope in Texas, and the Italian Galileo National Telescope with a mirror diameter of 3.6 metres.
The research team also includes: Prof. Aleksander Wolszczan (Pennsylvania State University, USA), dr Eva Villaver (Autonomous University in Madrid, Spain), dr Grzegorz Nowak (Astronomical Institute of the Canary Islands, Spain), dr Monika Adamow (State University in Texas and the McDonald Astronomical Observatory, USA and also NCU), dr Gracjan Maciejewski (NCU Centre for Astronomy), dr Kacper Kowalik (National Center for Supercomputing Applications in Illinois, USA), and PhD students at the NCU : Beata Deka-Szymankiewicz and Michalina Adamczyk. Prof. Niedzielski's research is financed by the National Science Centre.