A possible exoplanet has been spotted orbiting Vega, the brightest star in the Lyra constellation, space.com reports.
According to the media outlet, the candidate planet is "roughly the size of Neptune" and its relative proximity to its host star has led astronomers to estimate the temperature on its surface at a cool 2,976 degrees Celsius.
"There could be other planets throughout that system," said Spencer Hurt, an undergraduate astronomy student at the University of Colorado, Boulder and lead author of the new study. "It's just a matter of whether we can detect them."
The science team reportedly made their discovery "after looking at about 10 years of data collected by the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in Arizona," taking note of "a slight wobble in the star's motion, suggesting that an orbiting planet is tugging on it gravitationally."
Scientists are now expected to try and confirm the candidate planet’s existence and to hunt for other possible planets that may or may not exist in Vega's proximity, the media outlet adds.
