The discovery of a giant planet with characteristics that science cannot explain »Science News

The celestial body is similar in size to Jupiter, but eight times larger.

An international team of scientists discovered A exoplanet It is roughly the size of Jupiter, but unlike our stellar neighbor, this young planet does not match any of the theories explaining the formation of gas giants, which makes it a real puzzle for astronomers. according to Max Planck Institute for AstronomyHD 114082 b has a Eight times the mass of Jupiter; However, it is two to three times more dense than it should, according to the most approved theories, to be only a gas giant 15 million years. The density of this planet is twice that of Earth, which is quite remarkable considering that our planet is composed of rocks with a core of iron and nickel, unlike gaseous ones, which are mostly composed of hydrogen and helium, the lightest element in the universe. Ralph Lonehart, one of the authors of the research published in the journal Astronomy and astrophysicsHe explained that theories indicate that giant planets could form in one of two ways within a protoplanetary disk of gas and dust distributed around a young, central star. The first process, known asbasic accumulationIn the first stage, it is expected that a solid core of rocky material will accumulate. Once it reaches critical mass, its gravity pulls on the surrounding gas, causing it to accumulate hydrogen and helium to become a giant planet. In the second form is called Disk instabilityGravitationally unstable bundles of dense gas collapse together, forming a giant planet without a rocky core.

Depending on the planet’s development model, it should be gas It cools at different speeds, thus determining the temperature of the young gas giant planets. In this way they can experience what scientists call a “cold start” or “hot start,” characteristics that determine the behavior of these celestial bodies. After calculating the block HD 114082 b And the period of its orbit, scientists found that the combination of mass and size does not correspond to the evolution of hot-start stars, and although it fits hot-start stars a little better, it does not fit all assumptions. Lonhardt explained that for current theoretical models, HD 114082 b is too small for its mass, so either it has Unusually large hard core, or the models are wrong and the rate at which the gas giants cool is not well calculated. It could be both. “All we can say is that we still don’t really understand the formation of giant planets.”he added.