Scientists discover a planet 9 times the mass of Jupiter in early 'birthing process'
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About 508 light years away from Earth, a planet is undergoing its early 'birthing' process, say scientists.
The researchers, observing near the summit of a dormant Hawaiian volcano using Subaru telescope and Hubble space telescope, detected the planet called AB Aurigae b, which is of nine times the mass of Jupiter, according to The Guardian.
This protoplanet, or a planet in the process of formation, has only one star in its precinct—however, the planet is orbiting unusually away from its young host star.
Astrophysicist Thayne Currie of the Subaru Telescope and the Nasa-Ames research center said it was still in its early 'birthing process'
The study published on Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy gave details of this gas giant planet.
These types of planets are composed mostly of hydrogen and helium with gases surrounding smaller solid core, exactly like Jupiter and Saturn in solar system.
It is embedded in an expansive disk of gas and dust that bears the material that forms planets.
As well as being embedded in an expansive disk of gas, the planet is formed by dust that carry the material, and it surrounds a star. The planet AB Aurigae had a bit part in the 2021 film Don't Look Up, according to the report.
This one according to the study is the largest of the 5000 planets outside solar system or exoplanets that scientists have found. Alongside, it is approaching the maximum size to be classified as a planet, the report said. It cannot be a brown dwarf or what scientists say 'a body intermediate between planet and star.
Other exoplanets orbit around their stars within the distance that separates the sun and Neptune. The newly discovered plant orbits around its star three times as far as Neptune does from the sun and 93 times distance between Earth and the sun.
Its birth, according to the study, is not taking place as per the standard planetary formation model.
Usually planets form by slow accretion of solids onto rocky core. Gas giants go through this phase before the solid core is massive enough to start accreting gas, according to astronomer Olivier Guyon of the Subaru telescope and the University of Arizona.
In this scenario, protoplanets embedded in the disk surrounding a young star gradually grow out of dust- to boulder-sized solid objects and, if this core reaches several times Earth's mass, then begin accumulating gas from the disk, the report said.
According to Guyon, formation of this planet challenges scientists understanding of the process, because this process cannot form giant planets orbiting in large distance.
