NASA has encountered a giant exoplanet orbiting a relatively small star.
NASA has encountered an exoplanet of unprecedented size. It is about the same size as Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. There is nothing unusual about this in itself, NASA has encountered gas giants of this magnitude before.
However, the space agency’s astronomers have never found such a large exoplanet orbiting a low-mass M dwarf star. According to the current theories on the formation of planets, this should not even be possible. For this reason, the planet with the designation TOI-5205b received the nickname “forbidden planet”.
Like lemon circling pea
The home of the recently discovered exoplanet is a red dwarf star designated TOI-5205. This is only about 40 percent of the size and mass of our sun. Astronomers did not expect that such small stars could host giant planets. “The host star TOI-5205 is only about four times the size of Jupiter and still managed to form a Jupiter-sized planet, which is quite surprising,” study author Shubham Kanodia said.
Because of its enormous size, NASA researchers likened the planet to a lemon orbiting a pea.
Discovery challenges theories
The discovery of the giant planet orbiting a comparatively small star challenges theories of planet formation. Stars form from huge clouds of gas and dust in space. The material left behind then swirls around the star, forming a rotating disk in which planets are born.
“Initially, if there isn’t enough rocky material in the disk to form the initial core, a gas giant planet cannot form. And ultimately, if the disk evaporates before the massive core has formed, a gas giant cannot form either.” , explains Kanodia.
Other planets of this size
The giant exoplanet was discovered as part of a NASA research program aimed at discovering giant exoplanets. The team has already made numerous other observations of planets that could be of a similar size.
This suggests that the “forbidden planet” might not be so forbidden after all. The theories of planet formation may therefore need revision. The team also wants to use the James Webb Space Telescope to study the recently discovered planet. This should help to unravel the mysteries of its actually impossible creation.