Astronomers recently found a massive planet, LHS 3154b, that’s over 13 times heavier than Earth, and it’s puzzling scientists. It orbits a small, dim red star, which shouldn't have enough material to form such a huge planet. Normally, stars like this would create much smaller planets. The discovery of LHS 3154b goes against the current theories of how planets form. It would need a planet-forming disk way bigger than expected to exist. This find is important because it could change what we know about how planets form, especially around stars like this that are super common. #brightside Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/ Listen to Bright Side on: Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/idhttps-podcasts-apple-com-podcast-bright-side/id1554898078 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/brightside/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official/ Tik Tok - https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Snapchat - https://www.snapchat.com/p/c6a1e38a-bff1-4a40-9731-2c8234ccb19f/1866144599336960 Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00This planet, yeah, the one right here, shouldn't exist, but it does!
00:05A newly discovered planet rotates around a star that's much smaller and dimmer than
00:09our Sun.
00:10The planet, however, is enormous.
00:13Such a tiny star couldn't create it, so it's like finding an ostrich egg in a chicken
00:18coop.
00:19A team at Penn State built a special tool called the Habitable Zone Planet Finder.
00:25It's an instrument that's supposed to find planets around dim, cool stars.
00:30It's connected to a big telescope in Texas.
00:32The tool looks at the light from these stars, which is mostly in the near-infrared, beyond
00:37what our eyes can see.
00:39This gadget can spot changes in a star's speed caused by a planet.
00:43If the star movement slightly changes, that means there must be a gravitational pull nearby.
00:48Years ago, this technique helped find the first known exoplanet around a star like our
00:53Sun.
00:54And today, we've improved this method to make more precise measurements.
00:58Our main goal is to find Earth-like planets.
01:00They should be rocky and located in habitable zones – areas around stars where liquid
01:05water could exist.
01:07The Doppler technique isn't that great at finding Earth-like worlds yet, but works well
01:11for cool, dim stars.
01:13And that's how we discovered the impossible LHS 3154 b.
01:21Particles usually form in disks made of gas and dust in space.
01:25Picture a flat, spinning cloud of tiny particles.
01:29These particles come together and stick to each other, creating a flat, rotating disk.
01:34Over time, these tiny bits combine to form a solid core.
01:38This is the starting point for a planet.
01:41Once the core is there, it attracts more dust and even gas like hydrogen and helium.
01:46But making a planet this way isn't easy.
01:48They need a lot of stuff, mass, and materials.
01:52This process is called core accretion.
01:55Stars are a huge help in that process.
01:58Usually big stars have more gravity, so they can gather more stuff to form planets.
02:03But the star we discovered recently isn't very big.
02:06It's 9 times smaller than our Sun.
02:09A star this small shouldn't have a big enough disk to make a heavy planet.
02:13To do that, its disk should've been at least 10 times bigger.
02:17But this heavy planet, LHS 3154 b, exists.
02:24Now this mysterious planet is 13 times heavier than our Earth.
02:27It's similar in size to Neptune.
02:29It's about 50 light-years away from us in the Hercules constellation, which, in space
02:34terms, is very close.
02:36The planet is also super close to its star, completing one year in almost 4 days.
02:43This discovery is making scientists rethink their ideas about how planets and stars come
02:47into existence.
02:49There are new theories coming around.
02:51For example, a theory called gravitational instability.
02:55It says that, instead of the pieces coming together bit by bit, the material in the disk
03:00collapses all at once, directly creating a planet.
03:04But even with this theory, it's hard to explain how such a heavy planet could form
03:09without a really massive disk.
03:11It'll take us some time to figure out the truth.
03:16This isn't the first planet that makes us doubt our theories.
03:19Recently, scientists found another planet called Hala.
03:22This planet is orbiting a star called Beidou, and just like the previous one, it shouldn't
03:27really exist.
03:28It's way too close to its star.
03:31Stars change a lot during their lives.
03:33Normally, when a star becomes big and prepares to leave this world, it's called the red
03:37giant stage.
03:39A star like that tends to destroy or push away any nearby planets, creating a huge mess.
03:45Hala rotates around a red giant, and it should've been swallowed or destroyed by the expanding
03:50star a long time ago.
03:53But it's still hanging there.
03:55Even though Beidou has already started burning helium and shrunk to a smaller size than expected,
04:00Hala isn't bothered in the slightest.
04:03Scientists called Hala the forbidden planet.
04:06This discovery challenges what we thought about how planets survive near aging stars.
04:11It raises two theories.
04:13One suggests that Beidou was once two stars, a white dwarf and a red giant.
04:19Hala orbited them both, and they merged before the red giant fully expanded.
04:24This allowed Hala to survive because the extra helium from the white dwarf prevented the
04:28red giant from growing too much.
04:31The second theory says that Hala formed from the debris created when the two stars merged.
04:36In this scenario, Hala would be a very young planet orbiting an elderly star.
04:42Astronomers plan to continue studying Hala and look for more planets like that.
04:49Another oddball, besides me, is called LTT 9779b.
04:54This one scares us too because it's too shiny.
04:58The planet reflects 80% of the light from its star.
05:01Regular mirrors reflect from 85 to almost 100% of light, which means that this mysterious
05:07planet should look like a rough mirror with aluminum or silver-like reflections.
05:12This is another Neptune-sized planet.
05:15It's located 268 light-years from us and was discovered by NASA's TESS spacecraft.
05:21It completes a full rotation around its star in just 19 hours.
05:26It's so close to its star that it's scorching hot, reaching temperatures over 3,600 degrees
05:31Fahrenheit.
05:32Normally, planets this close lose their atmosphere and turn into bare rocks, but this one breaks
05:38the rules again.
05:42Now this time, we know the secret of its survival.
05:45It's because of the planet's shiny metallic clouds, which are made of glass and titanium
05:50salt.
05:51These clouds rain titanium onto its hot surface.
05:54They also reflect a lot of the light, preventing the planet from getting too hot and losing
05:59its atmosphere.
06:00It's like having a mirror shield.
06:02This planet's size also surprised scientists.
06:05It's way bigger than Earth.
06:07Other planets this close to their stars are either much bigger gas giants or small rocky
06:13planets.
06:14This planet is a smaller gas giant, and scientists didn't expect it to exist so close to its
06:19star.
06:20Venus is the shiniest planet ever found, even shinier than Venus.
06:24But despite its cool appearance, it's probably not a friendly place for light because of
06:29its extreme temperatures and strange metallic rain.
06:36And our final rule-breaker is a planet called WASP-107b.
06:41Scientists discovered it using the James Webb Space Telescope.
06:44It's located around 208 light-years from us in the Virgo constellation.
06:49It's also fast and completes an orbit around its star in just 6 days.
06:55This is a super-Neptune exoplanet.
06:58It's similar to Jupiter in some ways, including the same size and scorching hot temperatures.
07:03But the main difference is that it's much lighter, weaker, and less dense.
07:07This is the least dense planet we've discovered so far.
07:10After researching some more, we also found that it has a tail.
07:15The helium on the planet extends beyond the transit egress.
07:19The planet is slowly losing its atmosphere due to extreme ultraviolet radiation from
07:23the star.
07:25This creates a comet-like tail.
07:27So it looks like a fluffy comet.
07:32But that was just the beginning.
07:34The planet's low density, or fluffiness, allowed astronomers to study its atmosphere
07:39in detail.
07:40They found some surprising things, like water vapor and clouds made of fine silicate particles,
07:46which are like really fine-grained sand.
07:49The planet's host star doesn't emit a lot of high-energy light.
07:52But since WASP-107b is so loose, the light can penetrate deep into its atmosphere.
07:59This creates sulfur dioxide, that smell when you light a match.
08:03In other words, it's a fluffy planet that rains sand and smells like matches.
08:08The researchers think the sand clouds in the atmosphere form in a similar way to clouds
08:12on Earth.
08:13They just have droplets of sand instead of water.
08:16These sand droplets condense, fall, turn into silicate vapor in hot layers within the planet,
08:22and then rise again to form clouds once more.
08:26And once again, this planet couldn't have formed in its current spot.
08:30Astronomers say that it likely moved closer to its star from a birth orbit because it
08:34was attracted by some heavier neighbor.
08:37It also follows a retrograde orbit, meaning it orbits in the opposite direction to its
08:42star's rotation.
08:44All these discoveries are changing how we understand planets and their atmospheres,
08:48giving us new insights into the mysteries of our own solar system.
08:53That's it for today!
08:54So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your
08:59friends!
09:00Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!