An international group of astronomers discovered a giant planet near the star LTT 9779, on which a year lasts only 19 hours. Research published by Nature Astronomy September 21st.
The material says that the Neptune-like and super-hot planet orbits so close to its star that its year lasts only 19 hours.
Studies have shown that the planet “weighs” twice as much as Neptune, but has a similar density to it.
Radiation from the star heats it to over 1,700 degrees Celsius. At these temperatures, heavy elements such as iron can ionize in the atmosphere and separate molecules. Therefore, scientists are perplexed how the planet has retained its hydrogen-helium (H / He) shell for so long given the intense stellar radiation.
They suggested that for some time the planet was far from its star, and only relatively recently (by cosmic standards) came close to it.
According to experts, this is a “unique laboratory” for studying the chemistry of planets outside the solar system.
The star LTT 9779 is located 260 light-years from the solar system. It is very rich in metals – about twice that of the Sun.
Earlier, in August, it was reported that European astronomers analyzed the properties of already discovered exoplanets and came to the conclusion that the number of inhabited worlds in the Milky Way will amount to several tens of thousands if at least one such world can be discovered in the coming decades.
They set the goal of their research for the coming decades to search for life on the surface of exoplanets: if traces of life are found on at least one hypothesis about habitable worlds in the Milky Way, it will be confirmed with a probability of 95%.