Astronomers have apparently discovered the collected core of an exoplanet for the first time and ame that a gas giant has lost his hull or the formation of such worn. This reports the team around David Armstrong from the University Warwick in the Science Magazine Nature. The externally unusual exoplanet bears the designation TOI 849 B and is the massive overhead, which has one of the earth comparable density, so not predominantly composed of gas.
Unexpected mass so close to the star
Toi 849 B therefore circles around 730 light years away from us so close to his star that the for an orbit only 18 hours needed. With a mass that corresponds approximately twice to triples of the Neptune, the Sky Corker falls exactly into the so-called Neptune-Custe. So astronomers call an area in which there are either much smaller or significantly larger exoplanets. Because almost all exoplanets that circle their star in a few earthly days are either as small as the Mars or as rough as the Jupiter. In between there are almost no.
As the researchers now learn, TOI 849 B was discovered with the ExoplanetenJager Tess of NASA and examined with the Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) at the European Sudsternwarten in Chile. In this way, the coarse of the exoplanet was determined, which converts regularly a fraction of his star. With the instrument Harps you have then determined the mass of the sky corpor. This is therefore as rough as the Neptune, but comes to the two to three times mass, so be "incredibly dense".
Such a massive exoplanet had taken up gross amounts of hydrogen and helium to our understanding after its emergence, explain the researchers. Then he grown to a Jupiterahlen gas giant, but he either is no longer or never was. Either that happened in the past and the planet lost its gas hull – through a collision or through the very close star. Or it could be one "Failed gas giants" act, while the origin of which is a bit wrong.
In both cases it would be the first such exoplanet, continue to write and thus a particularly worthwhile research goal. On a blobed planetary core is currently now anywhere else look. If there are still residues of an atmosphere around the exoplanet, one could examine the on the basis of the spectrum and shut up on the inner.