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Astronomers from the University of Chile lead the discovery of a new type of planet, discovery published this Monday in the magazine Nature astronomy.
The study reveals the finding of the first “Ultra hot Neptune” from the history of astrophysics. The object located 260 light years away from our planet reaches temperatures of 1700 degrees Celsius.
LTT 9779 b is the name of this exoplanet found in the so-called Neptunian Desert, an area in terms of radius and period where Neptune-like worlds are rarely found, but which provide a unique opportunity to study planetary atmospheres.
The discovery of the candidate and subsequent confirmation of the object was achieved using two key instruments: the Transiting exoplanet reconnaissance satellite (TESS), through the transit method, that is, when the planet passes in front of the star and makes a small eclipse that translates into a decrease in brightness (in 2018) and the subsequent confirmation from speeds radial with the High precision radial velocity planet finder (HARPS), located at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in the Atacama Desert, Chile.
Below you can check out a digital animation of the discovered planet (animation credit: Ricardo Ramírez).
“The discovery of LTT 9779 b so early in the TESS mission was a complete surprise, a gamble that paid off. Most of the transit events, with periods shorter than one day, turn out to be false positives, usually binary stars eclipsing in the background ”, he explains. James jenkins, academic of the Department of Astronomy of the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Mathematics of the University of Chile and first author of the study.
The impressive temperature of the object has an explanation. “It is very close to its star, its translation period is only 19 hours, that is, the year of LTT 97779 b lasts less than one day of the Land. With such heat the heavy elements can be ionized in the atmosphere and the molecules dissociated, this provides us – astronomers – with a unique laboratory to study the chemistry of planets outside the solar system ”, says Dr. Jenkins.
The discovery
According to Matías Díaz, candidate for a doctorate in astronomy at the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Mathematics of the University of Chile, and researcher at the CATA Center of Excellence in Astrophysics and second author of the research, the observations to LTT 9779 b “They were planned very carefully, to maximize the use of the HARPS spectrograph and thus be able to cover the candidate’s orbit in an optimal way. During the first nights of data, we saw that the observations matched what was predicted about the candidate’s period ”.
For Andrés Jordán, director of the Millennium Institute of Astrophysics and one of the researchers of the paper, the finding has great value. “Having already known thousands of exoplanets, we know that there are some types that are inherently very rare. Some of these groups of rare planets are those with sizes between Saturn and Neptune and with orbital periods (“years”) less than four days. These systems are valuable because of how difficult they are to find, and because their properties can be important to better understand how planetary systems are formed and evolve ”, points out the astronomer, who is also a professor at the University’s Faculty of Engineering and Sciences. Adolfo Ibáñez.
Jenkins concludes “LTT 9779 b has an atmosphere with a mass equivalent to about three times the mass of Earth. However, since the planet is so close to the star, its radiation should have quickly destroyed it. The question then is, how could the planet maintain its atmosphere for so long? We will try to solve this and other mysteries in the coming years. “
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