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Astronomers have discovered a new planet in another solar system orbiting a red giant star that provides clues into what may happen to our own solar system five billion years from now when our own, younger sun becomes a gigantic old star. 

The exoplanet (a planet in another solar system) is about six times the mass of Jupiter and orbits about 40 percent closer to its star, dubbed HD 102272, than Earth does around the sun. Scientists say this is apparently the shortest distance that a planet can be from a red giant (a large, relatively cool, elderly star) without burning up.

Astronomers from Pennsylvania State University in State College and Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland found the exoplanet using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory in the Davis Mountains of West Texas. They observed the red giant wobbling from the gravitational pull of a nearby object, identified as the exoplanet. They suspect there may also be a second planet orbiting the red giant, which would be a first. The findings are set to be published in the Astrophysical Journal.

Earth is expected to be destroyed by the sun when it becomes a red giant in about five billion years, but astronomers suggest that the effects on other planets may be far more pleasant. Instead of being engulfed by the massive star, frozen worlds–if far enough from the sun–such as Jupiter's moon Europa might actually warm up enough to sustain life, Penn State astrophysicist Alexander Wolszczan told SPACE.com.

(Artist's rendering of a red giant destroying a nearby planet courtesy of NASA.)

7 Comments

1. 1. jimmy 07:55 PM 12/2/08

   i like it

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2. 2. isrocolombiano 08:16 PM 12/2/08

   anyway is too late for life to evolve in Europa, at least it already evolved there
   

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3. 3. omnivorousreader 07:57 AM 12/3/08

   The article, I believe said "sustain life". On the "bright side", it might offer our species an out so that, when we have to move back from the sun, at least we won't be kicking the indiginous lifeforms to the curb as in prior instances.

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4. 4. KJeroH 09:38 AM 12/3/08

   In 5 billion years there's no telling what this system will look like. How many comets and other bodies will have "fallen" through the system? How many (if any) will strike a planet or moon? Will our moon have moved far enough away so that its tidal influences will be minimized enough that it no longer keeps Earth from wobbling so that drastic weather changes completely changes the planet's features. Indeed, even the loss if tidal forces could change Earth's internal heating mechanisms. We -- humans -- may not even last anywhere near that long. Who knows, if we are still around, we may have evolved to the point where we're no longer really homo sapiens, but an entirely different hominid.

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5. 5. butflm 06:05 PM 12/3/08

   is this exoplanet same with the known planet X (nibiru) that has been discovered some years ago from nasa? however this is "said" to cross our solar system in a few years from now... well... dont know if its true...

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6. 6. butflm 06:09 PM 12/3/08

   is this exoplanet the planet x (nibiru) that has been discovered a few years ago? well, i planet x is said to pass our solar system in a few years form now... i dont know if its true... has anybody heard of it?

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7. 7. Orphiuchus 05:08 AM 12/4/08

   I wonder, even though the time line if millions of years in length, if this knowledge is leading us to behave so badly with regards to protecting and preserving our planet home? I often think it is humanity that is on decline not our solar system or the universe.

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