From what the planet it, to how it could change how we view planets, and more!
Join me as we explore Exoplanet TOI-849b and how it might be a gas giant that's lost its
gas!
I want you to picture the two kinds of planets that we know about in the universe.
Solid rock-like planets, and then gas giants.
You know that both of them have cores, right?
One is molten (or so we believe we can't actually prove this without samples) and one is believed
to be a compressed gas core.
But, as noted, it's really hard to prove these without actually going to the core and seeing
it for ourselves.
That is...until potentially right now, for one of these types of planets anyways.
A distant world about 40 times more massive than Earth may be the remnant core of a giant
planet, or a giant planet in the making whose growth stalled, a new study reports.
These findings may help shed light on what the mysterious cores of giant planets look
like, researchers said.
Which would obviously be a BIG step towards not just researching planets, but understanding
how they form, how they continue to live, and of course, what happens when they die.
Scientists investigated the exoplanet TOI-849b, which NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite
(TESS) first detected in 2018 and whose existence the La Silla Observatory in Chile later helped
confirm.
This alien world orbits the sunlike star TOI-849 about 730 light-years from Earth.
With a mass about 40 times that of Earth, TOI-849b is nearly half as massive as Saturn.
At the same time, data from the Paranal Observatory in Chile and the Las Cumbres Observatory Global
Telescope helped reveal that the exoplanet has a diameter about 3.45 times that of Earth,
comparable to Neptune's.
Altogether, this information suggests the exoplanet has a density similar to Earth's,
making it the densest Neptune-size planet discovered to date.
Which is quite a feat given all the planets that have been discovered in recent years
from various telescopes, satellites, probes, and more.
TOI-849b circles its star in a fast, tight orbit just 18.4 hours long.
This brings it scorchingly close to its star at a distance of just 1.5% of an astronomical
unit (AU), the average distance between Earth and the sun (which is about 93 million miles,
or 150 million kilometers).
The newfound exoplanet therefore lies in the middle of the so-called "hot Neptunian desert,"
an apparent (and mysterious) dearth of Neptune-size worlds that orbit very close to their stars.
"There are not a lot of planets in this in-between place, so to see a planet this size this close
to a star is pretty cool," Sean Raymond, an astrophysicist at the Observatory of Bordeaux
in France, who did not take part in this research, told Space.com.
Cool indeed, except when you're the planet being scorched by the sun, but we're pretty
sure it doesn't have feelings.
Still, seen a massive ball of gas like this be so close to its sun raises a lot of questions
and wonders, which is why many scientists are very focused on this exoplanet.
Especially since the very existence of TOI-849b contradicts what many people think happen
with gas giants depending on their size.
Previous models suggested that nascent planets more than 10 to 20 times Earth's mass should
have strong enough gravitational fields to gobble up huge amounts of material from the
protoplanetary disks of gas and dust that surround their newborn stars.
Such worlds should therefore swell to become gas giants similar to Jupiter or Saturn.
As such, one might think that TOI-849b is the remnant of a gas giant that lost most
of its weight somehow, perhaps due to the heat it experiences orbiting so close to its
star.
If this is true, this would create a whole new path for certain planets to go depending
on their circumstances, and if this is the core of a former gas giant, it would be treated
in a whole other way.
However, as much as the light from TOI-849b's star would sear the exoplanet, the scientists
noted such heating alone might still not strip a gas giant's atmosphere down to nearly the
planet's core.
They estimated the star is about 6.7 billion years old.
Given that amount of time, as well as TOI-849b's distance from its star, they calculated a
Jupiter-like gas giant would have lost only a few percent of its mass due to stellar radiation
to date.
Granted, this is just based on calculations and is not hard proof, but these models do
seem to point to this not being a planet ravaged by a star (or at least this star its orbiting),
and it's fair to believe that.
For now at least, because if more evidence or proof comes to life, it would obviously
change things.
As such, the researchers suggest that TOI-849b may be the remnant core of a gas giant that
lost mass through a different mechanism.
Perhaps it collided with other giant planets, for example, or the gravity of its star peeled
off much of its gas envelope.
Alternatively, if TOI-849b were slung to its current position due to gravitational clashes
with other planets, the energy the exoplanet would have experienced as its star's gravity
pulled TOI-849b into its current circular orbit would have greatly heated that world,
potentially leading to significant mass loss.
You might think, "Wait a minute, since when can stars be slung through the universe?"
Believe it or not, this happens a lot more than you think.
You see, many things in the universe, even stars, are tethered to something.
Planets are usually tethered to stars (like Earth with our own sun) and stars are tethered
to the greater gravitational forces of the galaxy they're in.
That's how orbits are made.
But, at times, these orbits are disrupted, and it lead to planets being flung from their
orbits and put into space at blinding speed (these are known as Rogue Planets, and many
exist in the universe) and of course, if done properly, stars could have this done to them
to.
And these planets and stars don't stop until they've collided with something, or get caught
by a strong gravity.
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Another possible explanation for TOI-849b's current state has to do with arrested development.
And no, we don't mean the TV show.
Perhaps TOI-849b formed late, when much of its system's protoplanetary disk was gone,
the researchers said.
Alternatively, perhaps as TOI-849b developed in orbit around its star, it carved off all
the material available to it for its growth within the protoplanetary disk.
All in all, TOI-849b may give scientists a glimpse at what the core of a gas giant looks
like.
Future research may directly observe that core's composition by analyzing evaporated
material in the exoplanet's remaining atmosphere.
I'm sure some of you are wondering why we're focusing so hard on this potentially very
unique planet, or planet core.
After all, we can't live on gas planets, or at the very least, the ability to do so (via
floating colonies or massive spacecraft) are well beyond our league right now.
Not to mention, this particular planet/planet core isn't exactly the closest thing around
right now, you know?
The answer lies in planet/planet core itself.
Because it can be an answer to something we just don't know yet.
And for many, the finding of the unknown is its own reward.
Think about it, if we're able to prove that this is the core of a former gas giant, we
could study it and learn all about how the core works, how it keeps the gas giants together
and so on and so forth.
This could lead to a brand new understanding that'll keep astronomers talking for a very
long time, and could even lead to new possibilities and views on the planets that we already know.
After all, we have a fleet of gas giants in our own solar system via Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus, and Neptune.
What is to say that learning more about this potential planet core couldn't lead to new
things found out about our own gas giants?
After all, we're still learning more about all four of them even now.
From the discovery of new moons around them, to the sounds that they make (Jupiter in particular
sounds really weird), a potential for moons with rings, and so on and so forth.
But what if we could study this potential core and then find a way to dive into one
of the four giants that we have an observe their own core?
That too could open up all sorts of things.
And yes, it's true that at present we are a long way away from being able to live anywhere
close to a gas giant, but that doesn't mean the possibility isn't out there.
Sci-fi series have shown all sorts of versions of colonies and spacecrafts that hover above
or orbit around gas giants in order to get certain things from them.
Plus, with us potentially going to Mars this decade and starting a colony, it would make
sense to want to learn even more about its neighbor in Jupiter just in case there is
something we don't know about their "neighborly relationship" that could affect the potential
colonists that live there.
In short, there is little doubt that while it may seem odd or foolish to want to learn
more about these gas giants, it could eventually be proven vital in the long run.
After all, the more you know, the more you can make evaluations about things that could
turn out to be major stepping stones for humanities expansion across the stars.
If you're still on the fence about that, look at Mars again.
Once upon a time we thought it was just a barren red planet that we had no hopes of
being on for one reason or another.
And for a while, our tests and findings proved just that.
But then...almost randomly, we found water on Mars.
One of the things that you absolutely have to have in order to sustain life on a planet,
and it was there.
Then, we started to dig deeper, and we found out that there are elements on Mars that could
be used to not just build a colony...but fund it.
Mainly in that there is indeed gold on Mars.
Fast forward to now, and both NASA and SpaceX are aiming to launch missions to Mars this
decade in order to start the potential colonization process.
But where would that have been in they stopped early on and said, "there's no way we can
inhabit a planet such as this"?
We would still be on Earth in the grand scale, various people wouldn't care about space,
NASA wouldn't have gotten the surge in the arm that it did, and Elon Musk wouldn't be
as successful as he is now with all the achievements SpaceX has made.
Space isn't just a place to look at, or even try and live in via its various planets and
moons.
It's a cornucopia of things that are begging to be discovered, and explored, and questioned.
The more we look into space, the more things that we find in order to help flesh out the
universe as a whole.
There are still LOADS of things we don't know about the universe that we're trying to answer.
Like, "why is the universe still expanding billions of years after the Big Bang ended?"
"Is there really Dark Matter and Dark Energy?"
"Is there any hope of finding another Earth-like planet among the stars?" and so on and so
forth.
Gas giants like TOI-849b make up a large majority of the planets in the universe, and the more
we know about them, how they form, how they grow, and the things they can do, the more
we're going to be prepared for when we are able to study them more up close hopefully
in the next few decades.
Sure, we here right now may be not be able to witness them up close, but someone will
one day, you can bet on that more than likely.
And again, what separates TOI-849b from the other gas giants that we have seen is that
it's very much unclear what led to it being like it is.
It defies the models that we have about gas giants, and so we need to study it more.
If it is a true planet then we need to figure out how it got turned into what it is now.
If it's the core of a former planet, then we need to not just study the cores contents,
but figure out the process that led it not just to being a core again, but how it ended
up on its current tether via the star its orbiting.
It's these questions that help fuel science and exploration.
We need to come to the point where we are able to answer these questions and thus propel
ourselves to the next level of knowledge about the universe.
Because until we do that, we're always going to be asking how things work instead of actually
figuring out how things work.
Plus, if humanity really is to go beyond our solar system, we need to figure out more about
the universe and be ready for all that may befall us.
So why not study something now?
Why wait for later?
We may not get another chance like this in our lifetime.
Thanks for watching everyone!
What do you think about this unique exoplanet?
Is it really a planet, or is it a planet core?
When do you think we'll finally get our answer as to what it possibly and truly can be?
Let me know in the comments below, be sure to subscribe, and I'll see you next time on
the channel!