A planet twice as big as Earth was found, what can become the new abode of humans?
Scientists have recently found a new exoplanet. But ever since astronomers have come to know about the size and type of this planet, they have been perplexed. The name of this planet is HD-114082b. It is a new planet whose size is as big as Jupiter. After measuring it, scientists have come to know that the properties of this planet do not match with any of the two models related to gas planet formation. That is, this planet is very heavy according to its age and how it was formed is still a puzzle.
Astrophysicist Olga Zakhozhay of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany says that compared to current models, the age of the gas giant HD-114082b is only 15 million years, which is two to three times the age of a young planet. is too dense.
According to research published in the Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, HD-114082b is about 300 light-years away. It is one of the youngest exoplanets ever discovered. By understanding its properties, we can know how planets are formed. It is a process that is not yet fully understood.
To understand an exoplanet comprehensively, two types of data are needed – Transit data and Radial velocity data. Transit data is a record of the way the star’s light dims when an exoplanet orbiting a star passes in front of it. If we know the brightness of the star, then the size of the exoplanet can be known from that dimming light. While the radial velocity data record the extent to which a star wobbles in response to the exoplanet’s gravitational tug. If we know the mass of the star, the amplitude of its wobble can tell us the mass of the exoplanet.
Researchers collected radial velocity data of HD-114082 for about four years. Using transit data and radial velocity data, the researchers found that HD-114082b has a radius similar to that of Jupiter, but has a mass eight times that of Jupiter. This means that the density of the exoplanet is about twice that of Earth and about 10 times the density of Jupiter.
Astronomers don’t know how it formed
The size and mass of this young exoplanet mean that it is unlikely to be a giant rocky planet. For this, it is necessary to have 3 times the radius of the Earth and 25 times the mass of the Earth. The density range of rocky exoplanets is very small. Above this limit, the planet becomes denser and its gravity begins to maintain a stable atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. HD-114082b far exceeds these parameters, which means it is a gas giant. But astronomers have not been able to understand how it was formed.
A Gas Giant Exoplanet Has Been Discovered With Twice The Density of Earth https://t.co/6uuqg4y6U6
— ScienceAlert (@ScienceAlert) December 4, 2022
MPIA astronomer Ralph Launhardt says that we think this giant planet could have been formed in two possible ways. Both these methods are called ‘cold start’ or ‘hot start’. In the cold start, it is believed that the exoplanet would have been formed by joining pebbles. Whereas a hot start is also known as a disk instability and occurs when an unstable region in a rotating disk collapses under gravity. The body that is formed after this is a fully formed exoplanet, which does not have any rocky core, where the gases remain the hottest.
The researchers say that the properties of HD-114082b do not fit the hot start model. Its core is different. Launhart says we can’t give up on the hot start concept just yet. All we can say is that we still do not understand the formation of giant planets properly.
