Contrary to current theories: Giant planets previously “grew up”

Friday, December 03, 2021

Contrary to general principles
Giant planets are used to “grow”

So far, scientists estimate that it would take hundreds of millions of years for a giant planet to reach its final size. German researchers come to different conclusions when examining two celestial bodies. We can change the mindset of how our solar system came to be.

Young giant planets reach their final size in the first million years of their development. An international team of researchers has found this by measuring the masses of two giant planets orbiting the young sun-like star “V1298 Tau”, according to a report by the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Botstam. The results should help “get a firm idea of ​​the early development of planetary systems like ours”.

The planetary orbit around the star “V1298 Tau” is relatively young at 20 million years. The Sun-like star is orbited by two giant planets discovered in 2019 using data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope. The mass of such young giant planets is not yet known. The researchers determined their mass using radial speed measurements from telescopes in La Palma, southern Spain and Tenerife, including AIP’s Stella II telescope.

“Over the years, theoretical models have shown that giant planets begin their evolution into giant bodies and then merge over hundreds of millions or billions of years,” explained Víctor J. Sánchez Béjar, co-author of the work. “We now know that they will be as big as the planets in our solar system in a very short time.”

By exploring such young planetary systems, it provides researchers with information about what happened in the childhood of our solar system. It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post. “If this were a normal thing, it would mean that the evolution of planets like Jupiter and Saturn is very different from what we think,” said co-author Nicholas Lodeau. The results therefore help to gain a definite idea of ​​the early evolution of planetary systems like ours.