“It is one of the most massive and dense transiting giant planets known to date,” writes the team of astronomers who conducted the study.
A group of scientists discovered an exoplanet the size of Jupiter and with an unusual density about 730 light-years away, revealed a study recently published on the preprint service arXiv.
The planet, named TOI-4603b, was first detected by NASA’s TESS space telescope. It has a density nine times that of Jupiter and three times that of Earth. Thus, its average density is estimated at 14.1 grams per cubic centimeter. By comparison, Earth has a density of 5.51 grams per cubic centimeter, and Jupiter 1.33.
In addition, it is determined that there is a limit to the mass that a planet can have, which is between 10 and 13 times that of Jupiter, while TOI-4603b has 12.89 times that mass.
Taking into account all the calculations, scientists have classified the newly found celestial body as a brown dwarf, an intermediate object between the planets and the stars in terms of its physical characteristics. This implies that it already has thermonuclear reactions, but not enough to glow brightly. However, TOI-4603b is closer to the planets than brown dwarfs in most respects.
“It is one of the giant planets in transit more massive and dense known to date,” writes the team of astronomers led by Akanksha Khandelwal of India’s Physical Research Laboratory.
“The detection of such systems will offer us valuable insights into the governance mechanisms of massive planets and will improve our understanding of their dominant formation and migration mechanisms,” the researchers say.
Source: RT
