University of Hawaiʻi/Institute for Astronomy/Karen Teramura
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Illustration of a Jupiter-sized exoplanet orbited by an evolving and dying star.
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Nationalgeographic.co.id-Discussions about outer space are endless, ranging from a variety of interesting phenomena to newly discovered objects. Recently, a team of astronomers from the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Hawai’i or ifA found three planets orbiting star the dying.
Reported from Sci Tech Daily, the discovery and confirmation of the planets has been accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal and announced at a recent press conference of the American Astronomical Society. The three planets located outside the solar system are known to have one of the shortest orbits ever observed.
The three planets, named TOI-2337b, TOI-4329b, and TOI-2669b, were first detected by NASA’s TESS or Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. Interestingly, one of the planets, TOI-2337b will be devoured by its parent star in less than a million years, faster than any known planet so far.
Keep in mind, all stars near death will inevitably grow into a “Red Giant” or “Red Giant” and devour objects that are nearby, according to NASA.
“This discovery is very important for understanding a new frontier in the study of exoplanets (planets outside the solar system): how planetary systems evolve over time. These observations offer a new window into planets nearing the end of their lives, before their parent stars engulf them,” said Samuel Grunblatt, lead author of the discovery.
The researchers estimate that the gaseous planets have masses between 0.5–1.7 times the mass of Jupiter and range in size from slightly smaller to more than 1.6 times the size of Jupiter. They also have a wide range of densities, from a density like that of cork to three times denser than water, implying the origins of the three planets were different.
“These three planets are just the tip of the iceberg. We hope to find tens to hundreds of other Solar Systems that evolved with TESS and provide new details about how planets interact with each other, evolve and move around stars, including those like our Sun,” said Nick Saunders, graduate student at the IfA and co-author of the study.
The team hopes that this ‘planetary archeology’ will help us understand the past, present and future of planetary systems. Taking us one step closer to answering the question “Are we alone?”
The planets were first discovered in NASA TESS full-frame photos taken in 2018 and 2019. Grunblatt and his collaborators identified candidate planets in the TESS data, and then used the WM Keck Observatory on Maunakea to confirm the existence of the three planets.
“Keck’s observations of this planetary system are critical to understanding its origins, helping to unravel the fate of solar systems like ours,” said IfA astronomer Daniel Huber, who co-authored the study.
Current planetary dynamics models suggest that a planet must orbit its parent star as the star evolves over time, particularly in the last 10 percent of a star’s lifetime. This process also heats the planet, potentially causing its atmosphere to expand.
Also Read: Star Birth May Happen 10 Times Faster Than Expected
However, stellar evolution will also cause the planets around the star to be closer to each other, increasing the likelihood that some of them will collide or even disrupt the entire planetary system.
Future observations of one of the planets (TOI-4329) of the three planets with the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope, could reveal evidence of the presence of water or carbon dioxide in the planet’s atmosphere.
If these molecules were to be seen, the data would provide a limit on where these planets formed and what kind of interactions must have occurred to produce the planetary orbits we see today.
Also Read: Astronomers Observe Death of Giant Stars Before Supernova Explosions
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