Astronomers find planet that seems too humongous to be orbiting its parent star!
Dec 3, 2023, 22:10 IST
A group of astronomers has identified a planet over 13 times the mass of Earth in orbit around an ultracool dwarf star named LHS 3154, which is merely nine times less massive than the Sun. This discovery marks the most substantial planet ever found closely orbiting an ultracool dwarf star, challenging existing models.
To grasp the perplexity of this revelation, it's essential to revisit our understanding of planet formation. Initially, there was an abundance of gas and dust before stars emerged. These particles gradually merged, forming larger structures that eventually gave rise to the massive celestial bodies we observe today. As these structures grew, they began to exert a significant influence on their cosmic surroundings.
Current theories propose that planets originate from the remnants of gas and dust left after star formation. However, the planet-forming disk around the petite LHS 3154 is not anticipated to possess sufficient solid mass to generate a planet as massive as LHS 3154b. This raises the fundamental question: from where did it originate?
In fact, the dust mass and dust-to-gas ratio in the disk surrounding stars like LHS 3154, during their early stages, would need to be ten times higher than observed to birth a planet of LHS 3154b's magnitude. This implies the existence of other, unknown processes that can lead to the development of massive planets around low-mass stars.
The planet, named LHS 3154b, was identified using the Habitable Zone Planet Finder (HPF), an astronomical spectrograph designed to detect planets with potentially liquid water orbiting the coolest stars beyond our solar system.
Typically, locating such planets poses a challenge. However, the lower temperatures of ultracool stars allow liquid-carrying planets to orbit much closer than our Sun would allow for Earth, making interactions between the star and planet more accessible for scientists to observe and confirm the presence of these distant worlds.
Megan Delamer, a co-author of the study, remarked, "Based on current survey work with the HPF and other instruments, an object like the one we discovered is likely extremely rare, so detecting it has been really exciting. Our current theories of planet formation have trouble accounting for what we're seeing."
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To grasp the perplexity of this revelation, it's essential to revisit our understanding of planet formation. Initially, there was an abundance of gas and dust before stars emerged. These particles gradually merged, forming larger structures that eventually gave rise to the massive celestial bodies we observe today. As these structures grew, they began to exert a significant influence on their cosmic surroundings.
Current theories propose that planets originate from the remnants of gas and dust left after star formation. However, the planet-forming disk around the petite LHS 3154 is not anticipated to possess sufficient solid mass to generate a planet as massive as LHS 3154b. This raises the fundamental question: from where did it originate?
In fact, the dust mass and dust-to-gas ratio in the disk surrounding stars like LHS 3154, during their early stages, would need to be ten times higher than observed to birth a planet of LHS 3154b's magnitude. This implies the existence of other, unknown processes that can lead to the development of massive planets around low-mass stars.
The planet, named LHS 3154b, was identified using the Habitable Zone Planet Finder (HPF), an astronomical spectrograph designed to detect planets with potentially liquid water orbiting the coolest stars beyond our solar system.
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Megan Delamer, a co-author of the study, remarked, "Based on current survey work with the HPF and other instruments, an object like the one we discovered is likely extremely rare, so detecting it has been really exciting. Our current theories of planet formation have trouble accounting for what we're seeing."