• Question: What is the biggest planet found?

    Asked by Josie87 to Julian, Jane, Hugh, Helen, Heather on 13 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Julian Onions

      Julian Onions answered on 13 Nov 2014:

      The biggest one in our solar system is Jupiter, which is a big old beast.
      However the biggest discovered around other stars is probably one called
      CD-35 2722 b
      which is a bit of a mouthful (they are looking to give them names eventually). This weighs in at about 31 times the mass of Jupiter.
      The trouble is, its difficult to tell, because once they get this big, they are in danger of lighting up and becoming a star. So is this a BIG planet, or is it a small star?

    • Photo: Helen Johnson

      Helen Johnson answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      Julian in again before me! 😀
      We actually know about quite a lot of large planets, because they’re the most easily detected when we look at other solar systems. Planets like this can be found by the dip in light from the star, as the planet passes in front blocking our view.

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