The discovery of a giant gaseous planet outside the solar system arouses the interest of astronomers | Science and health

The discovery is the result of research led by astronomers Alan Bose, Jonah Teske, Anjali Peet, and John Chambers, all of whom are from Carnegie Universityin the United States of America.

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The discovery was made in a NASA space observatory via the Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), using the transit method, that is, observing the decrease in the star’s brightness. According to the authors, the planet blocks about 7% of the light from TOI-5205, which is equivalent to about 40% of the sun’s mass.

When a star is formed, they are initially accompanied by a disk of gas and dust – it is this disk that gives rise to planets. For a gas giant to exist, it would have to be at least 10 times as massive as Earth to form a solid core and acquire great proportions with the gases in its atmosphere – just like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

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According to current stellar models, it shouldn’t be possible for a gas giant planet to orbit such a small star. Initially, if there was not enough rocky material in the disk to form the initial core, a gas giant planet could not form. Ultimately, if the disk evaporated before the massive core formed, neither of them would form, Kanodia said in a statement announcing the discovery. However, TOI 5205b forms in spite of these networks.

“Based on our current nominal understanding of planet formation, TOI 5205b should not exist; therefore it is a ‘forbidden planet’,” Kanodia added, according to Interesting geometry. Now, the team he leads must order observations of the planet with the James Webb Space Telescope, in search of more information about the strange exoplanet, and they claim that more stars like the newly discovered one may exist, although they are rare.