Astronomers discover that small stars can have large planets

No time to read?
Get a summary

Stars much smaller than the Sun can have giant planets like Jupiter. In this respect informs University College London.

Like other planets, gas giants are formed from protoplanetary disks surrounding young stars. According to current theories, cores are first composed of rocks, ice, and other heavy solids. When this core is large enough (about 15-20 times larger than Earth), it begins to pull gas onto itself. However, low-mass stars also have small disks, which were thought to not provide enough material to form a gas giant.

Now, the special space telescope for detecting exoplanets with the TESS transit method has found a system that violates this rule. In total, as part of the study, astronomers studied 91,306 low-mass stars and in 15 cases were able to detect the temporary fading of a star caused by the passage of a gas giant across its disk. In one case, a gas giant orbited a star five times lighter than the Sun.

In this context, scientists hypothesized that gas giants form not as a result of accretion to the core, but as a result of gravitational instability when the disk surrounding the star splits into planet-sized clumps of dust and gas. If so, low-mass stars may have very large gas giants that are two or three times the mass of Jupiter.

Formerly the James Webb telescope discovered planet with sand clouds.

No time to read?
Get a summary
Previous Article

Fernando Gorriarán injured: what does he have, how long will he be out and what matches would he miss with Tigres?

Next Article

Reuters: World Bank, EU and Kiev estimate the cost of restoring Ukraine to be $411 billion