New Zealand Astronomers Discover Most Distant Planet

New Zealand astronomers discover most distant planet

WELLINGTON, April 26 (Xinhua) — New Zealand astronomers have discovered the most distant planet yet found, 17,000 light years away in the middle of the Milky Way, New Zealand TV One reported Monday.

It was spotted from Canterbury’s Mount John Observatory by a group of scientists from Canterbury, Auckland and Victoria universities, and Nagoya University in Japan.

Victoria University astrophysicist Denis Sullivan said the search used the gravity of a nearby star as a lens to bend and magnify light from the star which the planet orbits.

Sullivan said the planet was the size of Jupiter but the goal is to find Earth-type planets.

Sullivan said the success prompted Japan to provide a new 7 million NZ dollars (about 4.4 million US dollars) telescope and it asked New Zealand to contribute 10 percent of that amount.