Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

According to reports, at present, the Kitt Peak National Observatory has discovered a mysterious Jupiter-like planet, which is by far the lowest density gaseous giant planet detected around red dwarfs.

The gaseous giant, with only the density of marshmallows, orbits a cold red dwarf star, and several astronomical devices are used for the mission, including the NEID radial velocimeter installed by the Kitt Peak National Astronomical Observatory as part of the National Science Foundation's NOIRLab laboratory mission. The newly discovered marshmallow planet is named TOI-3757 b.

Located in the constellation Auriga, about 580 light-years from Earth, the planet is by far the lowest density detected around a red dwarf, with an average density close to that of marshmallows.

Red dwarfs are one of the smallest and darkest members of the main sequence stars. main sequence stars are stars that convert hydrogen to helium at a steady rate in their cores. Although red dwarfs are cooler than stars such as the sun, they are very active and often burst into powerful flares. This will strip off the atmosphere of the orbiting planet, making the star system seem unfit for life, creating hairy planets.

"Giants orbiting red dwarfs have traditionally been thought to be difficult to form," said Shubham Kanodia, a researcher at the Earth and Planetary Laboratory at the Carnegie Institute of Science. "so far, scientists have found giant planets far away from red dwarfs through Doppler surveys. Currently, we do not have sufficient samples to find gaseous planets at close range in a reliable way."

TOI-3757 b still has some unexplained mysteries, the biggest of which is how gaseous giants formed around red dwarfs, especially those with a cotton candy density. However, the research team led by Canodia thinks they may have solved the mystery.

They believe that the ultra-low density of TOI-3757 b is closely related to two factors. the first factor is related to the rocky core of the planet. gaseous giant planets are thought to be conceived from a huge rocky core about 10 times the mass of Earth, and at the initial stage, they will quickly attract a large amount of adjacent gas to form the gaseous giant planets we see today. the main star of TOI-3757 b has a lower abundance of heavy elements than other dwarfs with gaseous giant planets. This may cause TOI-3757 b rock cores to form more slowly, delaying gas accumulation, thus affecting the overall density of the planet.

The second factor may be the planet's orbit, which is initially thought to be oval, and at some point it will be closer to the main star than at other times, causing too much heat and causing the planet's atmosphere to expand.

The planet was initially discovered by NASA's Transit Exoplanet Reconnaissance Satellite (TESS), and a team led by Canodia made follow-up observations using ground-based instruments, including the Radial Velocity Meter (NEID) and the Star Speckle Imager (NESSI), both installed on the WIYN Land-based Telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory. The habitable Zone Planetary Explorer (HPF) on the Hobbie-Eberle Telescope and the Red Hills Observatory (RBO) in Wyoming.

Currently, the transit exoplanet reconnaissance satellite (TESS) has observed the intersection of the planet TOI-3757 b in front of the star, allowing astronomers to calculate that the planet is about 150,000 kilometers in diameter, slightly larger than Jupiter. It takes only 3.5 days for the planet to orbit its main star, 25 times less than Mercury, the closest planet to the sun in the solar system, and 88 days for Mercury to orbit the sun.

Astronomers then used NEID and HPF to measure the apparent motion of the star along the line of sight, also known as radial velocity. These measurements provide the mass of the planet. According to calculations, the average density of TOI-3757 b is 0.27g / cubic centimeter, which means that its density is less than half that of Saturn, about 1/4 of the density of water (it floats if it is placed in a huge bathtub full of water). Or it actually has a density similar to that of marshmallows.

Jessica Libby-Jessica Libby-Roberts, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, said: "potential observations of the planet's atmosphere using the James Webb Space Telescope in the future may help to reveal its fluffy nature, and discovering more star systems with giant planets is an important part of our insight into how planets form. After all, it is very rare to find giant planets around red dwarfs. "

The discovery proves the importance of the Radial Velocity Meter (NEID) in detecting candidate exoplanets, provides the James Webb Space Telescope with an important goal to track and begin to describe its atmospheric characteristics, and helps astronomers reveal how the composition of the planets is formed and whether they can support life for potentially habitable rocky planets.

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