Astronomers Just Found A Giant Planet Where It Shouldnt Exist

Astronomers Just Found A Giant Planet Where It Shouldn’t Exist

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Outer space is constantly fascinating. In a recent discovery from the ESO, astronomers found a star system unlike anything they’ve seen before.

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Astronomers Just Found A Giant Planet Where It Shouldnt Exist

In a groundbreaking discovery just announced by the ESO, astronomers have detected a planet in a two-start system that’s hotter and more massive than anything found before it. If there’s one constant with outer space, it’s the fact that there’s always something new for humans to uncover. Even after decades of charting the universe and making countless discoveries, new things regularly appear to reshape our understanding of how space works.

This is something that’s happened repeatedly in 2021 alone. In late October, astronomers used advanced x-ray technology to detect the first planet outside the Milky Way. There have also been recent discoveries of a galaxy without any dark matter, along with Jupiter-like planets that are much smaller than anticipated. Humans like to think they know everything about anything, but when it comes to the wonders of the universe, it’s always one step ahead of us.

A recent finding from the European Southern Observatory has proven this point once more. In a report published on December 8, the ESO announced that its Very Large Telescope had detected something it’s never seen before. The image above is a picture of a planet orbiting a two-star system known as ‘b Centauri.’ Two-star systems aren’t unusual on their own, but the properties of this one are off the charts. In short, b Centauri is the “hottest and most massive planet-hosting star system found to date.”

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Why This Massive Star System Is So Fascinating

That’s certainly a bold statement to make — but what does it really mean? Let’s break it all down. b Centauri is located around 325 light-years away from Earth in the Centaurus constellation. Combined, the two stars have a total mass that’s at least 6x greater than the Sun. Previously, astronomers had only found planets with star systems up to 3x as massive as the Sun. With so much mass within the system, that also gives b Centauri a level of unfathomable heat. Just a single star within b Centauri is more than 3x hotter than the Sun — resulting in an enormous amount of ultraviolet and x-ray radiation.

Planets aren’t supposed to exist in star systems like this. When stars get this massive and hot, they impact surrounding gas in a way that usually deters planet formation. As explained by astronomer Markus Janson, “B-type stars are generally considered as quite destructive and dangerous environments, so it was believed that it should be exceedingly difficult to form large planets around them.” Somehow, the exact opposite occurred with the planet orbiting b Centauri. The planet (known as b Centauri (AB)b) is 10x more massive than Jupiter and orbits b Centauri at a distance that’s 100x further away than Jupiter is from the Sun. Even being that far away, the immense heat of the system still has a huge impact on the planet. As described by Gayathri Viswanath from Stockholm University, “The planet in b Centauri is an alien world in an environment that is completely different from what we experience here on Earth and in our Solar System. It’s a harsh environment, dominated by extreme radiation, where everything is on a gigantic scale.”

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What makes all of this more interesting is that the planet in b Centauri isn’t actually new. Astronomers first detected it 20+ years ago with the ESO’s 3.6-m telescope. At the time, however, they didn’t think it was a planet. Now that technology’s advanced and astronomers have had another look at it, they ended up finding something no one expected. It’s these kinds of discoveries that make astronomy so fascinating. Even when a planet or star’s been detected, there may very well be secrets not readily apparent. In this case, taking a second look more than paid off.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/b-centauri-star-system-planet-massive-hot-discovered/

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