Scientists have found a cotton candy-like exoplanet 350 light-years away which may be turning into a super-Earth.
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, the planet, the size of Jupiter, is shrinking, and could transform into a sub-Neptune or a rock like our own.
The extrasolar planet (V1298 Tau b), or exoplanet, is one of the youngest and lightest ever discovered. Orbiting a 23-million-year-old star, it’s an infant compared to older stars, like our sun, which is 4.6 billion years old.
But it’s not alone, as there are three other planets in its system, V1298 tau c, d and e.
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The team used the Hubble to observe Tau b to study the atmospheres of the young and evolving worlds.
“V1298 Tau b is the size of Jupiter. However, we found the mass of this planet to be comparable to, or even lower than, that of Neptune,” research leader Saugata Barat, University of Amsterdam, told Space.
“Therefore, it is likely to be a Neptune or Sub-Neptune progenitor at this age. Depending on the evolution of this planet, it could lose a large chunk of its primordial atmosphere and end up as a sub-Neptune or potentially even a super-Earth-like planet.”
But Tau b is the width of Jupiter with the mass of Neptune, meaning it’s a bit ‘puffed out’.
Barat added it’s low density means it can be compared to cotton candy.
When observing Tau b they found a large and clear atmosphere, and orbits the young T Tauri parent star in 24 Earth days, with its atmosphere being stripped by high doses of x-ray radiation and ultraviolet rays.
Although the interior appears to be very hot, it’s expected to cool down over time.
In the future, they plan to measure other molecules, from carbon dioxide to sulfur dioxide.
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