Confined to a spiral of death around that star, the giant planet was able to unleash some of the secrets surrounding the star system. However, the fate of this world is not yet set in stone, and two people’s deaths and one person’s “rebirth” are possible in the future.
The extsolar planet or “exoplanet” in question is TOI2109B, which has five times the mass of Jupiter and is located approximately 870 light years from the solar system. The planet is so close to its parent star, TOI-2109, that it lasts for just 16 hours.
These characteristics mean that TOI2109B is classified as “Ultrahot Jupiter.” It is a rare class of planets, accounting for about one of more than 500 planets in the world in a catalog of known deplanets. But TOI2109B stands out even amongst an incredibly hot and star-hugging world.
You might like it
“This is a very hot Jupiter and it’s a star-like orbit than any other hot Jupiter,” Macquarie University researcher Jaime A. Alvarado-Montes said in a statement.
“This indicates that this is a planet that is super-dense to the stars, as giant gas giants such as the TOI2109B will orbit completely in 16 hours.”
This makes TOI2109B the perfect laboratory for studying the phenomenon of orbital collapse, as the planet’s death star spirals into the host star.
Related: Astronomers discover the origins of the mysterious double Jupiter exoplanets: “It’s a kind of dance”
The deaths of three people in TOI2109B
Alvarado-Montes and colleagues set out to investigate the TOI-2109B using archival data from multiple telescopes, including NASA’s Transit System Fracture Investigation Satellite (TESS) and the European Space Agency (ESA) space mission Cheops.
This constituted data on the passage of TOI2109B across the surface of the parent star from 2010 to 2024.
“We were able to use all the data available on this planet to predict small changes in orbit,” said Alvarado-Montes. “We then tested it with theory and planetary evolution models, and the predictions were consistent with observations. It’s very exciting.”
Consistent theoretical estimates and observational evidence suggest that the orbit of TOI2109B decays approximately 10 seconds in the next three Earth years. This is a small change, but it has been proven that TOI2109B is swirling towards the parent’s star.
The ultimate fate of TOI2109B is uncertain. Because there are three ways this spiral of death can unfold.
The first and most dramatic final fate of TOI2109B will see Ultra Hot Jupiter plunging into its parental star. This occurs when the planet’s orbital decay begins to accelerate.
“Of course the stars absorb it and kill it. Of course they burn it completely and the planet disappears,” said Alvarado Montes.
This creates a flash of light similar to the ZTF SLRN-2020. This is the first signal observed in May 2020 when a giant gas planet plunged into the parent of the Red Giant star.
The second possible fate of TOI2109B is a bit less dramatic, but devastating, but not so devastating.
This occurs when the planet’s orbital decay continues unabated and the gravity of its parent star produces a destructive tidal force within the planet. These forces literally release TOI2109B.
“The planets are distorted because of the very strong gravity interaction,” said Alvarado Montes. “It starts to look like an elongated doughnut… the planet’s gravity can no longer hold its sphere.”
There is a third destiny to see the planet change rather than being destroyed.
In the third possible scenario of TOI2109B, the strong radiation experienced by Ultra-Hot Jupiter removes the planet’s gas-like outer layer in a process called light vaporization. This exposes the rocky inner core of the TOI-2109B.
“As the planet gets closer to the star, all gas molecules can begin to dissociate, and the planet gets smaller and smaller,” explained Alvarado-Montes. “And if the planet shrinks quickly enough, when the planet reaches the position where its Roche limit was, it will not become the masses of five Jupiters any more, but the Roche limit becomes smaller as the closer it gets to the star, so it can escape destruction.”
This could ultimately create rock-like “super-earths” around the size of Uranus or Neptune.
The team will continue to monitor TOI2109B over the next 3-5 years. This should reveal the fate that will fall on this world of destiny.
The TOI-2109B investigation has meaning beyond its unique, fascinating and fateful circumstances. Astronomers offer the opportunity to study how Hot Jupiter evolves and what happens when the planet moves towards the host star.
“This planet and its interesting circumstances could help us grasp the mystical astronomical phenomenon, where there is little evidence to explain so far,” concludes Alvaradomontes. “It can tell many other solar system stories.”
The team’s investigation was published in the Astrophysical Journal on July 15th.
This article was originally published on Space.com.
Source link
