TOI 849 b is a gas giant who has no atmosphere, with her bare heart. This is a first because never before has an intact nucleus of a gas giant around a star been detected.
–YOU 849b was detected by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (Tess) system in 2018.
KEYSTONE
A strange exoplanet has been discovered by an international team of astronomers, including researchers from the universities of Geneva and Bern. YOU 849 has the particularity of orbiting extremely close to its star, while its mass is 40 times that of Earth.
It is rare to find planets of such density so close to their sun. This region is also called by astronomers “the desert of Neptunes”, explain Wednesday the universities of Geneva and Bern. Scientists say TOI 849 b is a gas giant with no atmosphere.
Only his bare heart remains. For scientists, this is a major observation. Never before has an intact nucleus of a gas giant around a star been detected. This discovery offers the unique opportunity to study the unvarnished interior of another planet.
If TOI 849 b had not experienced a mishap during its training, it could have become a twin of Jupiter, accumulating, thanks to its mass, large quantities of hydrogen and helium in its atmosphere during its creation in the protoplanetary disc. Its history is however atypical.
Two theories would explain why the planet is deprived of atmosphere. Either YOU 849 ba saw its envelope tear, because it turns too close to its star or collided with another planet. Or, during her training, she did not have enough material around her to develop normally.
An 18 hour year
YOU 849 b is 730 light years away. It orbits so close to its star that it lasts 18 hours a year and its surface temperature reaches 1500 degrees Celsius. While its mass is equivalent to 40 times the mass of the Earth, its radius is only 3.4 times larger than that of our planet. Its density is at the same time very high.
YOU 849 b have been identified using the transit technique. Passing in front of its star, the planet causes a brief eclipse and tiny jumps in luminosity which are analyzed by astronomers. Another method of detecting and analyzing exoplanets is to record the small back and forth movements of the star due to the gravitational influence of the object that revolves around it.
Research on TOI 849 b was conducted by the University of Warwick, in Great Britain. The results of this international collaboration can be read in the journal “Nature”.
(ATS)
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