The twin stars orbited by these newly-discovered Jupiter-sized planets form a binary system, astronomers explain

Oct 1, 2014 19:55 GMT  ·  By
Illustration shows one of the newly-discovered planets orbiting its parent star
   Illustration shows one of the newly-discovered planets orbiting its parent star

A recent paper in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics announces the discovery of two previously undocumented planets that researchers say are about the size of Jupiter.

What's really cool about these two newly-discovered planets is that they each orbit a star that is part and parcel of what scientists call a binary system.

Seeing how the stars in this binary system formed from the same gas cloud and are therefore twins, this means that referring to the Jupiter-sized planets as cousins is not all that far-fetched, explain scientists with Keele University in the UK.

Writing in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, the space enthusiasts who discovered these two new planets detail that the stars they are circling are known as WASP-94A and WASP-94B.

Interestingly enough, one of these two new planets was discovered quite by chance. Thus, researchers first spotted one of the cousins transiting WASP-94A, and later detected the gravitational tug of the other planet on its parent star.

Of these two newly-discovered planets, the one circling WASP-94A has an orbital period of 3.95 days. Its cousin, on the other hand, takes about 2,008 days to complete its orbit.

Scientists plan to further study these planets outside the Solar System and hope to soon gain a better understanding of their makeup and behavior.