According to CNN reported on the 29th, international astronomers found a very rare planet NGTS-4b in the "Neptune Desert" area, which is a planet that should not have existed in theory, so it is also known as a "forbidden planet".
↑ Astronomers' newly discovered rare planet NGTS-4b, known as the "forbidden planet". Figure according to CNN
According to reports, the research team led by Richard West, principal researcher of the Department of Physics at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, has found traces of NGTS-4b with the help of the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) telescope of the European Southern Observatory in the Atacama Desert of Chile, which is the only exoplanet discovered by scientists in this area so far.
A study published Monday in the Monthly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society details the planet, which is 20 percent smaller than Neptune, but is 3 times larger than Earth, weighs 20 times more, and has a surface temperature 1832 degrees Fahrenheit (about 1,000 degrees Celsius) higher than Mercury. It orbits the star every 1.3 days, which means that it is only 1.3 days a year on the planet.
It is worth noting that the region where NGTS-4b was discovered could not have formed a Neptune-sized planet, because this area is known as the "Neptune Desert". None of the exoplanets discovered by the Kepler Space Telescope and Ground-based Telescopes are in this desert zone, and NGTS-4b is the first to be discovered in the region.
What surprised astronomers even more was that the planet had its own atmosphere, and in the "Neptune Desert" region, all the planets would be exposed to radiation from the star, causing the atmosphere to evaporate, leaving only a rocky core.
Since NGTS-4b appeared in the wrong place, astronomers speculate that it may have been a wandering planet that entered the region 1 million years ago, when it may have been larger, and now its volume is due to the continuous evaporation of the atmosphere. "The hardness of this star must be very high because it exists in an area where Neptune-sized planets simply cannot survive." Richard West said in a statement.
He said we're now collating the data to see if we can find more planets in neptune's desert, "maybe the desert is greener than we thought." ”
Red Star News reporter Jiang Yijin compiled the report
Edited by Yang Yutong
