Artwork of PSR B1620-26b,also known as Methuselah or the Genesis Planet. Some 12,400 light-years away in Scorpius lies the exoplanet dubbed Methuselah,a gas giant 2.5 times the mass of Jupiter. It is named for its extreme age of 12.7 billion years,after the oldest person in the Bible. Methuselah is the first circumbinary planet ever discovered - that is,it orbits not one,but two stars,as if they were one,at a distance of 23 astronomical units. The two stars are PSR B1620-26 A (a pulsar) and a white dwarf (WD B1620-26). It is also the first planet ever found in a globular cluster. In this depiction,particles from the stars are caught up in the planet's immense magnetic field,causing super-bright,alien aurora. The planet is viewed from the surface of an imagined,hypothetical moon |