Researchers analyzed the internal structure of the unusual planet WASP-107b.
WASP-107b was first discovered in
This work touches on the very basics of howGiant planets can form and grow. It turns out that accretion, or an increase in gravitational attraction due to the mass of a celestial body, may be caused by nuclei that are much less massive than previously thought.
Research text
The team used observations of WASP-107b,obtained at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii to more accurately estimate its mass, as well as the radial velocity method. They concluded that WASP-107b has a mass of about one-tenth the mass of Jupiter, or about 30 times the mass of Earth.
The team then conducted an analysis to determine fromwhat the planet is about. They came to the surprising conclusion: with such a low density, the planet should have a solid core no more than four times the mass of the Earth. This means that more than 85% of its mass goes into the thick layer of gas that surrounds this core. By comparison, Neptune, which has the same mass as WASP-107b, only has 5 to 15% of its total mass in its gas bed.
It was believed that without a massive core, gas giant planets would not be able to overcome the critical threshold required to create and preserve their large gas envelopes.
It is most likely that WASP-107b formedfar from the star, where the gas in the disk is cold enough that gas accretion can occur very quickly. Later, the planet was able to move to its current position either through interaction with the disk or with other planetary systems.
Researchers plan to study WASP-107b to form a more accurate picture of the composition of the planet's atmosphere.
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