This “cotton candy” challenges the ideas of exoplanet astronomers

In 2019, the researchers announced their discovery Vapor in the atmosphere of an exoplanet. Today, one of these researchers, Carolyn Biolet, Astronomer at the University of Montreal (Canada), publishes amazing works about another exoplanet : Wasp-107b. La Mass His heart will be much weaker than the community thought.

Remember that Wasp-107b is a different planet. It was discovered in 2017, at about 212 Light years Of our earth, in The constellation Virgo. She is almost tall Thursday, But its mass is very low. What is Wasp-107b Astronomers Call one Planet “Daddy’s Beard”. And his Around the circular path Is close to him Star, Sixteen times more than our Earth சோலைல். It currently only tours at 5.7. There is so much trouble catching her Atmosphere.

Thanks for the data received onKeck Lab (Hawaii), University of Montreal researchers were able to accurately measure Movement The oscillation of its host star by the gravitational pull of the wasp-107b. Thus they established its mass at one-tenth of Jupiter.

Incredibly large core

The astronomers then performed an analysis to determine the internal structure of the planet. Their result: mass Solid core Wasp-107b should not be more than four times larger than Earth. Therefore, more than 85% of the planet’s mass is located in a thick layer Gas Around this nucleus. This is amazing. Because you need to know it Neptune, For example – Wasp -107b scale its approach – this gas layer does not exceed 15% of its mass.

Until now, researchers believed it was necessary to create a relatively massive embryo Gas giants. The planet is in a state where it cannot retain multiple layers of gas. But this finding suggests a wasp-107b Giant planets Develops much easier than astronomers thought. It may have formed especially away from its star – where the air is cooleraccretion – Before moving to its current state.

Other questions regarding Wasp-107b were not answered. The atmosphere of this type of planet, for example, must be rich in methane. Observations, however Hubble, Carried out in 2018, shows the opposite. Researchers now plan to re-analyze these results. Find out by what mechanism methane-like destruction can be explained.