What if there is a planet outside our solar system that is similar to Neptune but hotter? Superhot Neptune? Can you believe it? It is reported that the recent Nature? The research paper written by the Chilean astronomical team was published in the journal Astronomy. The paper points out that their team discovered a planet about 260 light years away from the earth? Superhot Neptune? . Before this discovery, such planets existed only in theory. So what's so special about it?
It is close to the main star, but it has an atmosphere.
With the help of the La Silla Observatory and the American transit exoplanet survey satellite, the Chilean astronomical team discovered this piece called? LTT9779b？ Through long-term observation and calculation, the researchers found that LTT9779b is bigger than Neptune and its mass is twice that of Neptune. What makes the researchers even more incredible is that there is a stable atmosphere on LTT9779b, and the distance between LTT 9779b and the main star is very short, and it only takes about 19 hours to make a revolution.
In addition, the research paper points out that the surface temperature of LTT9779b exceeds 1500 degrees Celsius, which is why it is called? Superhot Neptune? Reason. At present, the research on super-hot Neptune is still going on, because there are many things worth studying on it, such as why it is so close to its main star. Why can it keep the shape of the gas giant planet so close?
Why did super-hot Neptune only exist in theory in the past?
The existence of LTT9779b super-hot Neptune is difficult for all researchers to understand, because the existing astronomical theory system thinks that a certain area near the main star is called? Neptune desert belt? It means that there can be no gas giant planet like Neptune in this area. At least from all previous observations, astronomers only found rocky planets and Jupiter-like planets near the main star, and never found Neptune-like planets.
Planets like Jupiter have an atmosphere thick enough that they will not be completely stripped off near their main star. Planetary atmospheres like Neptune are thinner, and the closer they are to the main star, the more likely they are to be stripped of the atmosphere, which is why the super-hot Neptune only exists in theory, but not in reality. So how to explain the existence of LTT9779b? The research team put forward a possibility.
That is to say, LTT9779b was originally a Jupiter-like planet far away from the main star, but gradually approached it under the gravitational perturbation of the main star, resulting in great loss of its own mass, and finally evolved into a planet similar to Neptune.
What does the appearance of this planet show?
Speaking of Neptune, many people's first impression of it may be the icy planet. Indeed, Neptune's surface temperature is below 0 degrees Celsius all the year round, so when it appears on the Internet? Superhot Neptune? Words, will certainly attract the attention of many people. But in fact, the name is only an image metaphor at present, which is quite different from Neptune. Nevertheless, its appearance has subverted the cognition of many astronomical researchers.
In recent years, human beings have discovered some astronomical phenomena in the universe that violate the existing theories. For example, some time ago, an astronomical team proposed the discovery of planets around supermassive black holes. This super-hot Neptune also broke the traditional cognition of human beings and made astronomers realize that there was such a celestial body in the original universe. James, an astronomer who participated in the research? Jenkins said that the appearance of the planet will provide a new reference direction for human beings to study the evolution of the planet.
The universe is vast and full of wonders, and human beings have great exploration potential in the universe. What mankind should do is to constantly improve the level of space science and technology and detection ability, constantly expand the scope of exploration, and let more astronomical phenomena that have never been seen before be discovered. Even if it goes against the existing theory, it is not terrible, because the universe is unfathomable.