A Chilean university student has discovered a new planet close to 300 light years away from earth, orbiting a star that is twice the size of earth’s sun.
Maritza Soto, a doctoral student in Astronomy at the University of Chile, stumbled across the new planet accidentally when conducting related research on the giant star the new-found planet orbits.
La joven Maritza Soto cuenta cómo se descubre un planeta desde Chile. http://t.co/xo82mJ6ssd y http://t.co/1qzhx5GoYr pic.twitter.com/aziqhq1AU4
— La Hora (@DiarioLaHora)
August 20, 2015
“The young Maritza Soto on how she discovered a planet from Chile.”
“What we wanted to do was to confirm the existence of the first planet discovered around this star,” Soto told Reuters, explaining that the star and one orbiting planet had already previously been identified. “We wanted to confirm this discovery.”
However, in the process of the investigation, Soto found another spot that turned out to not be on the star’s surface or related to its activity.
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“The only other reason that remained for this signal was that there was a second planet orbiting the star which had not been confirmed before," said Soto.
According to Scottish astronomer James Jenkins at the University of Chile, Soto’s discovery is an important one.
Maravillosas noticias! Maritza Soto astrónoma chilena de 25 años descubre un nuevo planeta http://t.co/qqpRNPetBr pic.twitter.com/sTjbexEA6G
— Lorna Aguilar (@Lornibaby)
August 20, 2015
“Great news! 25 year old Chilean astronomer Maritza Soto discovered a new planet.”
“It's a giant planet about three times the mass of Jupiter. And Jupiter is the most massive planet in the solar system,” Jenkins told Reuters. “So this is a giant planet, but the important factor here is it's also orbiting a giant star, a giant star about the mass twice that of our sun.”
Jenkins added that further research is important to understand how this two-planet solar system functions and how the planets formed.
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For Soto, it is a proud moment in her research career.
"One dreams of being able to make a concrete scientific discovery,” the doctoral student said. “And knowing that I discovered another planet which is now registered is something very important for me."