Of the nearly 900 planets outside our solar system, confirmed to date, this is the first planet discovered at such a great distance from its star. Estimated planet orbits a red dwarf TW Hydra, a popular target of astronomers, located 176 light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra.

Hubble discovered a mysterious gap in the vast protoplanetary disk of gas and dust swirling around TW Hydrae. The width of the gap is estimated at 3 040 000 000 km, and the disc 65 600 000 000 km. The presence of the gap is likely to be caused by the growing unseen planet that gravitationally buttonhole material and penetrates a track in the disc, like a snow plow.

The mass of the planet is estimated between 6 and 28 times the mass of Earth, and its wide orbit indicates that it moves quite slowly around its star. So, if the orbit of the planet place in the solar system, the planet would be placed about two times farther from the Sun than Pluto.

Planets are believed to have formed over tens of millions of years. The formation of the planet, located in 12 billion kilometers from the star, it would take 200 times longer than for the formation of Jupiter because of the slower orbital speed and not enough material in the disk. For example, Jupiter is 800 million kilometers from the sun, and his education took about 10 million years.

Age TW Hydrae is only 8 million years, making it unlikely that it has the planet, according to this theory, since its formation is simply not enough time. Complicating the problem and the fact that TW Hydrae only 55% more massive than our sun.

It is so intriguing that we found such a system, - says John Debes from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. Debes heads the research group determined the break. This is the lowest mass stars for which we have observed such a gap in the distance.

An alternative theory of planet formation suggests that part of the disc become gravitationally unstable and collapses on itself. In this case, the planet can be formed much faster for several thousand years

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If we can confirm that it is in fact a planet, we could combine it with the measurements of the characteristics of the gap in the disc, "says Debes." This could be supplemented by a theory of planet formation how the planet formed at such great distances.
In the outer part of the disk TW Hydrae also no large dust grains. Observations with an array of radio telescopes ALMA in Chile showed no dust particles, the size of a grain of sand at a distance of more than 8.8 billion kilometers from the star, a little closer gap.
"As a rule, you need pebbles for you appeared planet. Therefore, if there is a planet, and there is no dust more than a grain of sand, it would be a huge challenge to conventional models of planetary formation," explains Debes.