Recently, an inexplicable exoplanet has been discovered orbiting
a small star 500 light years away, forcing us to question how planets really
form. "We have found a small star,
with a giant planet the size of Jupiter, orbiting very closely," said
researcher George Zhou from the Research School of Astrophysics and Astronomy
at The Australian National University. “It
must have formed further out and migrated in, but our theories can't explain
how this happened." This exoplanet
is one of the thousands of exoplanets discovered in the past 20 years. The host star most recent exoplanet, known as
HATS-6, is an m-dwarf. M-dwarf stars are
hard to examine since their cool temperature makes them darker. The scientists were able to tell that the
star had an exoplanet revolving around due to the change in its brightness when
the planet circulated in front of the star. “The
planet has a similar mass to Saturn, but its radius is similar to Jupiter, so
it's quite a puffed up planet. Because its host star is so cool it's not
heating the planet up so much, it's very different from the planets we have
observed so far," Mr Zhou said. "The
atmosphere of this planet will be an interesting target for future study.”
Citation: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/05/150501095951.htm
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