The search for exoplanets today is one of the fastest growing areas in astronomy. So, for example, only in our galaxy there can be tens of billions of planets. Now, according to Science Alert, scientists have found an exoplanet that, according to all the laws we know, should not have existed.
The planet 8 Ursae Minoris b, with an approximate mass of Jupiter and an orbital radius less than half the distance from the Earth to the Sun, was discovered in 2015 by a group of South Korean astronomers. This subsequently allowed the star and the planet to receive Korean names: Baekdu and Halla. The presence of the exoplanet Halla near the Baekdu star was determined by fluctuations in the Doppler shift. In such cases, the star and the planet revolve around a common center of mass, and the star either moves towards us, or flies away from us.
Long-term observations have shown that fluctuations in the Doppler shift uniquely correspond to the presence of a massive object in orbit around the star and cannot be a mistake, which sometimes happens in such cases. In other words, the planet Halla is not a measurement error. The planet does exist, but at the same time it should not have been there, as other data have shown.
The publication explains that the Baekdu star is at the stage of burning helium, which also showed the spectral analysis of its radiation. This means that it has passed the stage of shell shedding, which occurs after all the hydrogen in its core has turned into helium – then the core contracts, and the shell expands a hundred times or more, absorbing and destroying everything in its path.
Scientists wondered how an exoplanet in a distant star system could have survived in such a situation. In this regard, two scenarios were proposed for the development of events. First, if the system was previously binary, then the expansion of the shell of an older star could “rest against” a younger star, and the ejection would be limited to a relatively small space. Secondly, the exoplanet could have formed already after the shell was ejected from the star from its substance.
Source: Rosbalt
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
