National Geographic Kids USA - September 2017

GREAT-GREAT GRANDPA PLANET

You’re floating above one of the most extraordinary planets you’ve ever visited: PSR

B1620-26b. It doesn’tlookparticularly unusual—it’s a giant gas planet similar to Jupiter.

But it was“born”about 13 billion years ago and is the oldest planet ever discovered. In

fact it’s nearly as old as the universe itself!

You position your spacecraft to get a view of the pair of suns rising over the planet’s

horizon. PSR B1620-26b didn’t always have sister suns. For 10 billion years this planet

circled a single yellow sun. But then one of the planet’s neighbors—another star—

exploded in a blaze of light. The explosion left behind a tinier star called a neutron star.

Neutron stars are small, but they have strong gravitational pulls. This neutron star’s

gravitational pull was so mighty it yanked PSR B1620-26b and its yellow sun out of their

orbit and into its own. Then the neutron star got extremely close to its new sister sun.

Its intense heat peeled away at the yellow star’s outer layers until the original star had

shrunk into a white dwarf star.

PSR B1620-26b is so far from its double suns that it takes the planet approximately a

century to orbit them. From where you’re floating above the planet now, the suns are just

pinpoints of light in the sky. But considering their dramatic history, you decide to keep a

safe distance. On to your next destination!

BY STEPHANIE WARREN DRIMMER

SPACE

DESTINATION

f

s

s

Destination

PSR B1620-26b

Location

The constellation Scorpius

Distance

7,200 light-years from

Earth

Time to reach

195 million years

Weather

Minus 350°F

Look skyward(while wearing protective glasses!) on August 21, 2017, and you’ll likely

see a spectacular sight: a total solar eclipse. This event happens when the moon lines up

exactly between the sun and Earth. It blocks the sun’s light and darkens the sky. People

across parts of the United States stretching from Oregon to the Carolinas will be in the

best position to see the eclipse—the first one visible from the country in four decades.

TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE

This planet

is nearly three

times older

than Earth.

8 SEPTEMBER 2017 MONDOLITHIC (BOTH)