News

Actions

Astronomers struggle to explain orbit of ‘Zombie Planet’

Posted at 10:50 PM, Jan 10, 2013
and last updated 2013-01-10 22:50:25-05

The unbalanced orbit of a so-called zombie planet in a dusty star system has astronomers struggling to explain its behavior.

New observations of the planet Formal-Haut B by the Hubble Space Telescope, revealed the oddball orbit changing all the time.

The planet is three times the size of Jupiter and was dubbed a zombie planet because it kind of rose from the academic grave.

It was first discovered in 2008 - but then it was ruled to just a large dust cloud.

Last year scientists confirmed it was in fact a planet and "brought it back to life.

And to be clear, if they ever bring Pluto back to life as a planet "so to speak," it's not going to be orbiting around the sun calling for brains.