The past year, a planet was found sitting at an oddly large distance from its star. It was 16 times farther than Pluto is from the sun. The planet could have been thrown out of its birthplace near to the star in a process that resembles what may have taken place early in the history of our solar system.

The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) in the Chilean Andes and the Hubble Space Telescope captured some pictures, which have shown that the star has a lopsided comet belt pinpointing a quite disturbed solar system, and suggesting that the planet interactions that roiled the comets nearer to the star could have thrown the exoplanet into exile also. The planet could even have its own ring composed of debris, dragged by it.

Paul Kalas, an adjunct professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, said, “We think that the planet itself could have captured material from comet belt, and that the planet is surrounded by large dust ring or dust shroud. We conducted three tests and found tentative evidence for dust cloud, but jury is still out”.

Abhi Rajan, a graduate student at Arizona State University analyzed the pictures of the planet, and added that the planet’s measurements made by them have suggested that it could be dustier than comparison objects. Rajan said they have been making follow-up observations for checking whether the planet was actually encircled by a disk, which is an exciting possibility.

These kinds of planets attract audience because our own solar system, in its youth, could have had planets that were thrown out of the local neighborhood and thus no longer are among the eight planets seen today.