Posted:
October 24, 2021 18:27 GMT
The images can help scientists understand how objects in space form and change over time.
An international team of scientists from the University of Hawaii at Manoa has captured one of the smallest planets ever found outside the solar system, make it known This Friday on her website Keck Observatory, Hawaii (USA).
Images of planet 2M0437b, discovered in 2018, could help researchers advance the understanding of how objects in space formed and changed over time, and shed light on the origins of the solar system and Earth.
“By analyzing the light from this planet, we can tell something about its composition, and possibly where and how it formed in the long disk of gas and dust around its star,” explained Eric Gaidos, a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences. Earth and lead author of the research.
Researchers estimate that 2M0437b has a mass several times greater than Jupiter and that it formed with its star several million years ago, when the Hawaiian Islands first appeared over the ocean. The planet is so young that it is still warm from the energy released during its formation, with a temperature similar to that of lava from the Kilauea volcano.
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