Scientists have discovered an exoplanet that is 9 times larger than Jupiter

Researchers recently discovered a new exoplanet, and surprisingly, it is 9 times the size of the planet. Jupiter, but what makes the discovery even more remarkable is that the exoplanet, in addition to its size, is still in its “belly”. In other words, it is still in the process of being created.

And although other exoplanets have been discovered in recent years, including some similar to the planet Earth, another as large and with the same conditions has not yet been found.

So research on this new exoplanet, named AV Aur b researchers, if possible, the team uses Subaru Telescope, which is located near the top of an inactive Hawaiian volcano. Also used Hubble Space Telescope in orbit to detect and study the planet.

“We believe that the process of its ‘birth’ is still at a very early stage,” said astrophysicist Thane Currie of the Subaru Telescope and NASA Ames Research Center, lead author of the study, published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.

“Available evidence suggests that this is the first gas giant formation stage ever observed.”

Protoplanet AB Aur b

OUR AV Aur b is located approximately 9.5 trillion kilometers from Earth and is surrounded by a star. AB Aurigae.

As I said at the beginning, other exoplanets have been discovered in recent years, about 5 thousand so far. But AV Aur b not only is it one of the largest sightings in history, which puts it closer to being included in the list of planets than a brown dwarf (which mediates between the body of a planet and a star), but it also surprises researchers as to why, according to the astronomer and a co-author of the study, his birth occurs in a process different from the process of planetary formation known to science. Olivier Guyon.

“The conventional wisdom is that most, if not all, planets form by the slow accretion of solids into a rocky core, and that gas giants go through this phase before the rocky core becomes massive enough to start accumulating gas,” Olivier said. Guyon of Subaru Telescope and the University of Arizona.

Another interesting point is that almost all exoplanets known to researchers revolve around their stars at a distance separating them from our Sun, and they have one thing in common, like one of the most distant planets, Neptune. already AV Aur b it spins three times as far as Neptune from the Sun and 93 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun.

“This process cannot form giant planets at large orbital distances, so this discovery challenges our understanding of planet formation,” Guyon said.

This orbital distance led researchers to the idea that AV Aur b it forms in such a way that the disk around the star cools, and gravity causes it to break into several “pieces”, and gravity pulls them together, sticking together, so that the planets form.

This new discovery makes it clear that the formation of planets is something very complex and that it involves many variables that can surprise even those who have dedicated their lives to the search.

I end with this quote from Thain Curry Astrophysicist, Subaru telescope:

“There is more than one way to cook an egg. And obviously there could be more than one way to form a planet like Jupiter.”

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Source: euronews