Theories about planetary formation argue that only the largest and massive stars are capable of forming large planets, but the recent discovery of a gigantic planet orbiting a tiny star has surprised and baffled researchers.
The planets are born from the material surrounding young stars, in what is known as ‘protoplanetary disc’; If the dust and gas from this album is grouped and reaches sufficient dough, it can lead to giant planets, but that process depends largely on the mass of the star: the lower the star, the less material it has available to form large planets.
An international team of scientists has discovered a giant exoplanet orbiting a tiny star (Toi-6894), which only has 20% of the mass of the sun, a finding that challenges current theories around planetary formation and that opens new questions about how and where the giant planets can arise.
Today they publish the results of their work in the journal Nature Astronomy.
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The discovery is part of a large -scale research project that analyzes the data of the Tess mission (acronym for ‘Satellite of Exoplanets in Transit’) of NASA, in search of giant planets around low -mass stars, and in the study they have participated researchers from centers from several countries, including the Astrophysical Institute of Andalusia, belonging to the Higher Council of Scientific Research (IAA-CSIC).
The exoplaneta (toi-6894b) that orbits around that dwarf star is a low-density gaseous planet, with a radio somewhat larger than Saturn’s-the second largest in the solar system, after Jupiter-, but with only half of its mass, the CSIC reported in a press release released today.
“‘To-6894b’ demonstrates that somehow, nature finds paths to form giant worlds even around dwarf stars”
The star is, on the other hand, the one with the lowest mass in which a giant planet has been discovered in transit, since it has only 60% the size of the next smaller star known so far and that ‘hosted’ a similar planet.
The IAA-CSIC contributed in a key way with observations made from a 1.5-meter telescope in the Sierra Nevada Observatory (OSN), in different light bands and in coordination with other international telescopes.
The researcher of this Center Francisco José Pozuelos has stressed that the discovery directly challenges the theory that only large stars can form giant planets, and explained that ‘toi-6894b’ demonstrates that “in some way, nature finds paths to form giant worlds even around dwarf stars, and that greatly expands our understanding about where and how planetary diversity can arise in the galaxy”.
Pozuelos has specified that it is not the first case of a giant planet formed near a dwarf, “but one of the most extreme and surprising,” he said that thanks to the Tess mission – operative since 2018 – hundreds of thousands of stars have already been observed, including more than 90 thousand dwarfs of low dough, and has valued the transcendence of this discovery planets ”.
Does not contradict the formation of the solar system
The finding, the astronomer has assured, does not alter or contradict the theories about the formation and evolution of the solar system; “What it does is to test how far those models can go very different from those of the sun,” since it is a dwarf star, tiny and with a much poorer album, and discoveries like this “force us to expand and adjust our models so that they can also explain these extreme systems.”
The planet’s atmosphere is also surprisingly cold, compared to other gaseous giants discovered so far, since it barely reaches 140 degrees Celsius-similar another have temperatures up to five times higher-, so ‘toi-6894b’ has become one of the most promising candidates to investigate the cold atmospheres of the exoplanets.
This is going to be “a reference planet” for the study of atmospheres dominated by methane
The researchers have pointed out that it could be detected, in addition to methane, ammonia, which would constitute a milestone because that compound has never been observed in the atmosphere of an exoplanet.
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All the peculiarities observed have made the exoplaneta ‘toi-6894b’ have been selected for future observations with the James Webb space telescope (JWST), planned in the coming months, to advance in the understanding of how giant planets are formed in extreme environments.
The researchers have been convinced that this is going to be “a reference planet” for the study of methane dominated atmospheres and one of the best natural laboratories to explore carbon -rich atmospheres, nitrogen and oxygen outside the solar system.
With EFE information
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