All About Space

New planets were found circling the start HR 8799, infact there were 3 planets as shown in the image. The star is about 128 light-years (that's 128 x 9.5 trillion kilometres) from Earth.

The HR 8799 solar system is only about 60 million years old, compared to the 4.6 billion years our planetary neighbourhood has been around. The trio of planets are 5.3 to 6.6 times hotter than Jupiter.

Scientists estimate that HR8799, roughly 1.5 times the size of the sun, is 130 light years from Earth in the constellation of Pegasus. The individual planets in this planetary family are estimated to be seven to 10 times the mass of Jupiter.To determine whether the faint objects orbiting HR8799 were indeed planets and not other stars, astronomers studying the three newly discovered planets (HR8799b, HR8799c and HR8799d) compared images from studies conducted in different years.

In all the documented pictures, the three objects were found to be orbiting in a counter-clockwise direction around HR8799, proving that they were planets and not just background objects coincidentally aligned in the image.