The discovery of an “impossible” planet could change our understanding of how planets form

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Sunday, February 26, 2023 11:11 am

Scientists have discovered a planetary system with a “forbidden” world that shouldn’t exist, which could rewrite the rules of how such planets are born, RT reported.

Scientists previously thought that it was unlikely that such a small star would be able to host such a huge gaseous planet.

TOI 5205b was first identified by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey satellite.

But after some thorough searching by the team of Shubham Kanodia, of the Carnegie Institution for Science who led the study, they found that this is a long way off in terms of what scientists know about how planets form.

“The host star, TOI-5205, is four times the size of Jupiter, yet somehow managed to create a planet the size of Jupiter, which is very surprising,” Kanodia said.

To date, no gas giant has been found in a planetary system around a star like TOI-5205, which is classified as a low-mass M dwarf.

Kanodia explained, “The existence of TOI-5205b extends what we know about the disks in which these planets were born.

In the beginning, if there is not enough rocky material in the disk to form the primary core, one cannot form a gas giant planet, and eventually, if the disk evaporates before the supermassive core is formed, one cannot form a gas giant planet. However, TOI-5205b poses despite these barriers. Based on our current nominal understanding of the planet’s composition, TOI-5205b should not exist, it is a forbidden planet.”