New planet discovered 13 times larger than Jupiter

Scientists discovered the planet OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb located right in the middle of the Milky Way, 22,000 light years from Earth.

New planet discovered using gravitational amplification technique. Photo: NASA

Scientists have discovered a new planet 13 times the size of Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, in the center of the Milky Way, according to Yahoo News. The new planet is called OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb, 22,000 light years away from Earth.

OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb orbits its parent star with an orbital period of about three years. Scientists discovered the planet using a technique called microlensing, which measures the distortion of light when one star passes in front of another.

The planet's mass is right at the "heavy hydrogen-burning limit," the conventional dividing line between a planet and a brown dwarf. The researchers say OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb could also be a brown dwarf, a celestial body larger than a planet but not massive enough to sustain the nuclear fusion process that ignites stars.

"We report the discovery of OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb, which may be the first planet detected by the Spitzer Space Telescope in the Milky Way bulge, as confirmed by two high-resolution imaging phases of the object," the team wrote.

According to VNE