Artwork of the dark exoplanet CVSO 30 c. This is one of two known gas planets around the very young T Tauri star called CVSO 30, situated 1200 light-years away in the constellation of Orion. At just 2.5 million years old, this star is but a toddler. The innermost planet (not depicted) orbits the star in a mere 11 hours. However, the outermost one, shown here, is so far out at 660 astronomical units (AU) that it takes a staggering 27, 000 years to complete a single revolution. At this remote location, the light reaching the planet is very feeble, especially given that the T Tauri star is less luminous than our Sun. Starlight at this distance is only around one-millionth of the Sunlight on Earth. Because of the remote distance of the planet CVSO 30 c from its star, astronomers have managed to image it directly using telescopes in Chile, Hawaii and Spain. |