Scientists at Pennsylvania State University, in the United States, have located a planet that is very massive in relation to its star, and the discovery is calling into question what is traditionally understood about the formation of planets and solar systems.
In an article published this Thursday (30) in the magazine Scienceresearchers report the discovery of a planet more than 13 times the mass of Earth orbiting the star LHS 3154, which is nine times smaller than our Sun.
The mass ratio of the newly discovered planet to its host star is more than 100 times that of Earth and the Sun.
The research reveals the largest planet known to science around an ultracool dwarf star, the least massive and coldest type of star in the Universe.
The discovery goes against what current theories predict for the formation of planets around stars, and marks the first time that a planet with such a high mass has been seen orbiting a star with such a low mass.
“This discovery really shows how little we know about the universe,” said Suvrath Mahadevan, professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Penn State and co-author of the paper. “We wouldn’t expect such a heavy planet to exist around such a low-mass star.”
He explained that stars are formed from large clouds of gas and dust. After the star forms, the gas and dust remain as disks of material orbiting the newborn star, which may eventually evolve into planets.
Discover the planets of the Solar System
Source: CNN Brasil
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