Astrophysicists from the University of California at Berkeley reported the discovery of exoplanet HD 56414 b. This
The planet has a radius 3.7 times that of the earth andrevolves around a star every 29 days at a distance equal to about one quarter of the distance between the Earth and the Sun. The system is about 420 million years old, much younger than our Sun, which is 4.5 billion years old.
Over the past 25 years, astronomers have found thousandsexoplanets orbit the stars of the Milky Way, but more than 99% of them orbit small stars, from red dwarfs to stars slightly more massive than our Sun, which is considered a medium-sized star.
Distribution of discovered exoplanets by sizeand orbital period. In the "hot zone" (highlighted in red), the remnants of the destroyed "Neptunes" are probably hiding. Image: Steven Giacalone, UC Berkeley, NASA data
Only a few of the exoplanets foundrevolve around massive and bright blue A-type stars about twice the size of our Sun. This type, for example, includes the stars Sirius and Vega, which can be found in the sky with the naked eye. At the same time, most of the planets found around bright stars are the size of Jupiter or even larger.
A planet the size of Neptune is easiest to find ifit is located quite close to its star. The researchers believe that if such a planet revolves around a type A star, then the sharp radiation emanating from the latter will quickly “blow away” the atmosphere of Neptune. This means that only a bare stone core will remain of the planet, which is difficult to detect.
The new planet was named "warm Neptune"because it is located a little further than the "hot" zone, in which it could lose its gas under the influence of the star's radiation. Researchers believe that closer to the stars there may be many rock remnants that were once Neptunes, but have not yet been discovered.
We can expect to see a cluster of Neptune core remnants on short orbital periods around such stars. The discovery also helps us understand how planetary atmospheres develop.
Courtney Dressing, Associate Professor of Astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley
Cover image: Steven Giacalone, UC Berkeley
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