NGTS

​An international team of astronomers has discovered a massive Jupiter-sized planet orbiting an M-dwarf star only half the mass and size of our Sun. The existence of so massive a planet around such a small star challenges current theories regarding planetary formation.

The NGTS array, built by a UK, German and Swiss consortium, has achieved first light at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. The installation is designed to search for exoplanets between two and eight times the size of Earth, studying them as they pass in front of their parent star.