About 57 light years from Earth, astronomers have discovered a large new planet, colored a deep magenta. It's the second planet whose color has been directly observed by astronomers, the first being HD 189733b, a blue planet outside the solar system. That alone would make this find noteworthy. But equally noteworthy is the fact that the planet itself challenges current theories of planetary formation.
This planet, GJ 504b, is about the size of Jupiter, but has several times its mass. It's actually so far the smallest planet that's ever been directly imaged with a telescope, rather than being observed by eclipsing its parent star. Planets the size of Jupiter appear to be quite common throughout our galaxy-astronomers have discovered many outside of our solar system. But what's unusual about this planet is that it's located about 4.05 billion miles from its star-about 43.5 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. If it were in our own solar system, it would be beyond the orbit if Neptune.