Planet With Three Times Mass Of Jupiter Discovered: Is Life Possible There?

We know that Jupiter is the biggest planet in our Solar System and one of the biggest planets discovered. Moreover, the planet has played a huge role in shaping the Solar System due to its mass and its gravity. Now, NASA has discovered a new planet that is three times larger than Jupiter in terms of mass.

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New Large Planet Discovered

Dr. Lauren Weiss, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy was one of the main scientists who discovered the new planet, whose details have now been published in The Astronomical Journal.

The newly-discovered planet is named Kepler-88 d, which means that it orbits the star Kepler-88, a Sun-like constellation Lyra. So far, astronomers have already discovered two planets Kepler-88 b and Kepler-88 c. The newly discovered Kepler-88 d was published after six years of observation.

Here, the team of scientists used the High-Resolution Spectrometer (HIRES) instrument, which is on the 10 meter Keck telescope. The six-year observation revealed that the planet Kepler-88 d has a circular four-year orbit, unlike the elliptical orbit of Earth's. When objects orbit the same star, they experience what's called an orbital resonance, which is key to understand planet behavior.

New Planet Compared With Jupiter

There are many factors about Jupiter that have molded our Solar System. For one, it has created gaps in the asteroid belt and might even be responsible for the Late Heavy Bombardment when it migrated. Another trivia is that Most of the orbits of the Solar System's planets are closer to Jupiter's orbital plane than the Sun's equatorial plane.

This brings us to the newly discovered Keppler-88 d planet that is almost thrice in the size of Jupiter. "At three times the mass of Jupiter, Kepler-88 d has likely been even more influential in the history of the Kepler-88 system than the so-called King, Kepler-88 c, which is only one Jupiter mass," said lead author Dr. Lauren Weiss.

Of course, there are still many things we don't know about the planet. But it certainly is a beginning to better understand the giant celestial masses in the universe.