Kepler-1647b is the largest exoplanet detected to date, orbiting two stars . If it were more similar to Earth, from its surface you could see an extraordinary sunset, in a way similar to the one that Luke Skywalker contemplated from Tatooine in Episode IV of Star Wars . However, Earth and Kepler-1647b are nothing alike. In fact, it has the same mass and size as Jupiter and, like it, it is a gas giant.
This extrasolar world is located 3,700 light years away, in the constellation of the Swan, in a system dominated by two stars similar to the Sun , one somewhat larger and the other slightly smaller. It takes about three years to revolve around them, which makes this object in the circumbinary world – so they are called those that orbit around two stars – with the longest known orbital period. In fact, this circumstance made the researchers’ calculations difficult, so that it took several years to confirm the finding .
Based on the data collected by the Kepler space telescope, a team of astronomers coordinated by experts from NASA and San Diego State University, in the USA, confirmed the existence of this planet during the last meeting of the Society. American Astronomical. In it, they also announced that it moves in the habitable zone of its system , a region in which liquid water could occur on the surface of a rocky body and with it perhaps life. Although Kepler-1647b is not such a world, scientists indicate that if it had large moons, such as Jupiter or Saturn, they would possibly have developed on them. They also calculate that it is about 4,400 million years old, somewhat less than that of the Earth .
This discovery, according to planetologists, is relevant, since until now it had not been possible to confirm the existence of large circumbinary exoplanets of long period.
Image: Lynette Cook / NASA
