Email Print Share

All Images


News Release 07-166

New Planet Discovered Around Nearby Star

New planet within star's habitable zone

This material is available primarily for archival purposes. Telephone numbers or other contact information may be out of date; please see current contact information at media contacts.

The star known as 55 Cancri and four of its five known planets.

This artist's concept shows four of the five planets that orbit 55 Cancri, a star much like our own. The most recently discovered planet, and the fourth out from the star, looms large in the foreground. It is at least 45 times the mass of Earth, or half the mass of Saturn, and it orbits the star every 260 days. The system's three known inner planets can be seen in the background around the glowing star, while its most distant planet is not pictured. The star 55 Cancri has produced a larger number of massive planets than our solar system. The colors of the planets in this illustration were chosen to resemble those of our own solar system. Astronomers do not know what the planets look like.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech


Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (204 KB)

Use your mouse to right-click (Mac users may need to Ctrl-click) the link above and choose the option that will save the file or target to your computer.