Scientists discover rare giant planet orbiting smaller cool star 35 light-years away

In a rare discovery, a group of astronomers has detected a Saturn-like planet revolving around a small cool star at about 35 light-years from Earth. According to the reports, the giant planet was detected by a 'wobble' in the star's motion, caused due to the gravitational pull of the planet. 

As per a report published in SpaceRef, it is the first time this technique has been successfully employed with observations obtained from radio telescope. The identified planet has been named TVLM 513b and has a mass similar to Saturn and an orbit similar to that of Mercury 

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Discovery

According to the report, the tendency of extrasolar planets orbiting around small stars is very rare. Astronomers discovered the planet using the continent-wide Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). 

This is the first discovery of an extrasolar planet with a radio telescope using a technique that requires extremely precise measurements of a star's position in the sky, and only the second planet discovery for that technique and for radio telescopes. The astrometric technique has been viable for detecting Jupiter-like planets in orbits distant from the star. 

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Image: SpaceRef/Twitter