Enlarge (credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
You win some, you lose some. Earlier this week, observations made by the Webb House Telescope offered new information that helps what we thought we understood about planet formation. On Thursday, phrase got here that astronomers noticed a big planet orbiting near a tiny star—a star that is too small to have had sufficient materials round it to type a planet that giant.
This doesn’t suggest that the planet is “inconceivable.” Nevertheless it does imply that we could not totally perceive some elements of planet formation.
An enormous mismatch
LHS 3154 is, by any cheap measure, a small, dim star. Imaging by the staff behind the brand new work signifies that the crimson dwarf has simply 11 % of the Solar’s mass. Temperature estimates place it at about 2,850 Okay, far decrease than the Solar’s 5,800 Okay temperature and barely heat sufficient to maintain it out of ultracool dwarf class. (Sure, ultracool dwarfs are sufficient of a factor to advantage their very own Wikipedia entry.)
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