Newly Discovered Exoplanet With Extreme Seasons Called A ‘Real Maverick’

Two groups of astronomers working independently in Germany have discovered a massive new exoplanet that’s quite strange–for a few reasons.

The newfound exoplanet, dubbed Kepler-432b, was monitored by NASA’s Kepler space telescope from 2009 to 2013 and identified as a planetary candidate in 2011. Using the 2.2-meter telescope at Calar Alto Observatory in AndalucĂ­a, Spain and the Nordic Optical Telescope on La Palma in the Canary Islands, the researchers are now confirming that, indeed, it’s a planet.

Two papers describing the discovery have been published in the January 2015 issue of the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

The Huffington Post