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closer object. Astronomers were working to confirm this result at the time the study was
published.
One question raised by the Swiss astronomers' discovery was how 51 Pegasi's suspected
companion was formed. Mayor and Queloz offered two explanations for the origin of such an
object: either it formed as a gas giant like Jupiter, or it was a brown dwarf (a starlike object
larger than a planet but smaller than most stars) that was stripped of some of its mass by
radiation from 51 Pegasi. If the latter were true and the hypothesized object was being
quickly devoured by the star, then it would not be considered a planet. If the object was a
Jupiter-like gas giant, however, a different set of questions would be raised. Astronomers are
not accustomed to the idea of gas giants existing so close to a star and have no clear
explanation of how one could come to be in the position that 51 Pegasi's companion
occupies.
Source: Encarta Yearbook, December 1995.
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