Astronomers may have revealed the strange origins of the universe’s strangest planet, the so-called “double hot jupiter.” The team behind the research hopes their discoveries will help them find more of these rare planets.
One of their years can last longer than Earth Day, as the Hot Jupiter extra planet, or “exoplanet,” burns hot gas giants, the size of Jupiter, closely into orbit to their parent star. Hot Jupiter is rare, orbiting only 1% of the stars, but even rarer is the “Double Hot Jupiter.” These lineage pairs are found in binary star systems, where there is one planet orbiting each of the twin stars.
It was a strange arrangement, and scientists were keen to decode it as it seemed to challenge the theory of planetary formation. This team of astronomers believes they may have the key to this puzzle and discover that the usual long-term evolution of binary systems can naturally lead to the formation of hot Jupiter around each star.
You might like it
The process the team investigated is known as the Von Zeipel-Lidov-Kozai (ZLK) transition. This assumes the idea that over a period of time, planets with unusual orbital orbital angles will be influenced by the gravity of another object and lead to hot Jupiter near its parent star.
“The ZLK mechanism is a kind of dance,” said team leader and Yale University astronomer Malena Rice in a statement. “In a binary system, the extra stars can shape and loosen the planets, moving them inside.
“It shows how planets within a binary system can undergo mirrored movement processes, ensuring that both stars end with hot Jupiter.”
Related: Strange “failed star” Jupiter is 2,000 degrees hotter than the sun
To reach their conclusion, Rice and her colleagues performed many simulations of the evolution of two planets using the Grace Computing Cluster from Yale Center for Research Computing, using data from NASA’s Expressnet archives.
“With proper code and ample computing power, we can explore how planets evolve over billions of years. It’s a movement that we couldn’t see at one time in a lifetime, but it still leaves a trace for us to observe.”
The unintended consequence of the team’s research is to make the planetary formation model more interesting.
“We’ll expect a giant planet to form far away from the host’s star,” Li said. “This makes hot Jupiter accessible, mysterious and a worthy object to study.”
For more double hot jupiter hunts, the team suggests revisiting the binary system in which one hot jupiter has already been discovered. The only catch is that these parent stars need to have a segregation that is not too close and not too far away but just right.
“Our proposed mechanism works best when the stars are in moderate separation,” explained team members and Yale Research’s Tiger Lou. “They need to be as far apart as you would expect giant planets to form around each star, but they are close enough for the two stars to affect each other during the lifespan of the system.”
Goldilocks binary star, someone?
The team’s investigation was published in the Astrophysical Journal on June 10th.
This article was originally published on Space.com.
Source link
