A “Forbidden Planet” Found, about three times the size of Earth!
This “Forbidden Planet” roughly the size of “Neptune” exists in a ‘Neptunian Desert’. It is a region around a star where Neptune-sized planets were thought not to exist.
The planet named as “NGTS-4B”. However it has dubbed the ‘Forbidden Planet’, was found in a region referred to as a celestial ‘desert’ 920 light years from Earth.
The planet has a surface temperature of 1,000°C!
The most specific thing is the planet has a surface temperature of 1,000°C and challenges all previous research by existing so close to its star. Its atmosphere should have evaporated at that temperature.
This wasteland around a star caused by endless levels of radiation was thought to create a swath of space without any gassy planets. But ‘Forbidden Planet’ has been spotted in the middle of this zone orbiting every 1.3 days around a star 920 light years away from Earth.
The Forbidden planet, known formally as NGTs-4b, was found by telescopes run by the University of Warwick in an international collaboration of astronomers.
The planet is 20% smaller than Neptune and it is about three times the size of Earth. And has a surface temperature of more than 1,000° C, which is hotter than Mercury. The Forbidden Planet the first exoplanet of its kind to have been found in the Neptunian Desert. A large planet the size of NGTs-4b would not be sustainable this close to a host star as the immense radiation would cause the gases to evaporate and disappear, leaving just a rocky core behind.
Researchers at the University of Warwick are doubtful why the planet dares logic and exists in its current position. They reflect the planet either shifted to its current position recently within the last million years. Or it was earlier even larger than its current circumference and the atmosphere is still evaporating.
Dr Richard West, from the Department of Physics at the University of Warwick, says:
‘This planet must be tough – it is right in the zone where we expected Neptune-sized planets could not survive. ‘It is truly remarkable that we found a transiting planet via a star dimming by less than 0.2 per cent – this has never been done before by telescopes on the ground, and it was great to find after working on this project for a year. ‘We are now scouring out data to see if we can see any more planets in the Neptune Desert – perhaps the desert is greener than was once thought.’
