Signs of a sizzling-hot world spotted around famous nearby star Vega
Vega has been imagined as home to alien intelligence. Now the bright star system is finally coming into focus.
March 10, 2021 9:22 a.m. PT
Artist s conception showing the scorching-hot planet KELT-9b orbiting its host star. A newly detected signal may indicate the presence of a similar planet orbiting the star Vega. NASA/JPL-CalTech
One of the brightest stars in the sky may host one of the most scorching-hot planets known.
Astronomers combed through a decade s worth of data on the nearby young star Vega, also a staple setting of science fiction stories like Carl Sagan s Contact, and found signs of a sweltering world in close orbit. They detail their research in a paper published in the Astronomical Journal.