Some astronomers believed planets could not exist around stars this massive and this hot - until now. This is the hottest and most massive planet-hosting star system found to date, and the planet was spotted orbiting it at 100 times the distance Jupiter orbits the Sun. The European Southern ObservatoryРІР‚в„ўs Very Large Telescope ( ESOРІР‚в„ўs VLT) has captured an image of a planet orbiting b Centauri, a two-star system that can be seen with the naked eye. The image was captured by the SPHERE instrument on ESOРІР‚в„ўs Very Large Telescope and using a coronagraph, which blocked the light from the massive star system and allowed astronomers to detect the faint planet. By taking different images at different times, astronomers were able to distinguish the planet from the background stars. The other bright dot in the image (top right) is a background star. The planet, visible as a bright dot in the lower right of the frame, is ten times as massive as Jupiter and orbits the pair at 100 times the distance Jupiter orbits the Sun.

The star pair, which has a total mass of at least six times that of the Sun, is the bright object in the top left corner of the image, the bright and dark rings around it being optical artifacts.

This is the first time astronomers have directly observed a planet orbiting a star pair this massive and hot.

This image shows the most massive planet-hosting star pair to date, b Centauri, and its giant planet b Centauri b.

Weaons planet centauri