An international team of astronomers has discovered a new inflated exoplanet, hot Jupiter, as part of a project
The so-called "hot Jupiters"The characteristics are similar to the largest planet in the solar system, but their orbital period is less than 10 days. Such exoplanets have high surface temperatures because they orbit their parent stars very closely.
Now a group of astronomers led by Douglas R.Alves from the University of Chile in Santiago, Chile, reports that she has discovered a new extrasolar object of this type, called NGTS-21b. While observing a metal-poor K dwarf, they discovered a strong transit signal. Its planetary nature was confirmed during subsequent observations.
light curve. Credit: Alves et al., 2022
The radius of NGTS-21b is 1.33 the radius of Jupiter and 2.36 itsmass, and density is at the level of 1.25 g/cm³. The planet orbits the star approximately every 37 hours at a distance of about 3.5 million km. This means that NGTS-21b is an exceptionally hot exoplanet—its equilibrium temperature is estimated to be around 1,357 Kelvin (1,083.850°C).
Scientists emphasized that the parameters of NGTS-21bindicate that it is a bloated, massive, hot Jupiter. Some giant planets increase in size when their parent stars are at the end of their life. And the age of NGTS-21 is estimated at 10 billion years.
Inflated planets are almost known to astronomerstwo decades, but it is still unclear what causes inflation processes. In general, there are two theories: scientists believe that it is caused by the release of energy from the host star, or due to the inhibition of the planet’s cooling.
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