Some of the most wonderful things to view as an amateur astronomer are star clusters. To see so many stars packed in so tightly in a relatively small area compared to the rest of the cosmos is truly one of the greatest awe-inspiring sights available to most normal people...but let’s step it up.
A team of NASA-funded researchers have spotted two Jupiter-sized gas giants in the open cluster known as the Beehive Cluster in the Cancer constellation. The Milky Way has around 1,000 clusters just like this one. This is the first evidence obtained to show that planets can form in dense stellar locations.
What are the implications? First of all, the night sky from one of these planets has to be one of the most impressive in the universe. The number of extremely bright stars would make our night sky look like stickers on a child’s bedroom ceiling. The grander implication is that we now have evidence that tells us to also look for exoplanets in areas that were previously thought to be void of planets.
Unfortunately for those hoping to mark a new spot on their intergalactic travel list, these planets are best viewed from a distance. While they are the same general size of Jupiter, their temperatures are much higher. Due to their close proximity to their parent stars, their gases are boiling hot and quite inhospitable.
The upside that now that we know where to look and for what, we’re likely to start finding many more. As with all exoplanets, the possibilities abound and we have many discoveries in our future.
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