This is an artist's concept of the star HD 3651 as it is orbited by a close-in Saturn-mass planetary companion and the distant brown dwarf companion discovered by Spitzer infrared photographs. The Saturn-mass planet was discovered through Doppler observations in 2003. Its orbit is very small, the size of Mercury's, and is highly elliptical. The gravity of the distant brown dwarf companion may be reponsible for the distorted shape of the inner planet's orbit. Brown Dwarf Companion

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Photo credit: © NASA Image Collection / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: 3651, astronomy, copy, editorial, hd, nasa, news, night, photograph, photography, rocket, sky, space, stock