{"id":133479,"date":"2024-12-05T05:51:01","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T22:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=133479"},"modified":"2024-12-05T05:51:01","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T22:51:01","slug":"james-webb-space-telescope-discovers-4th-exoplanet-in-sweet-triple-super-puff-star-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=133479","title":{"rendered":"James Webb Space Telescope discovers 4th exoplanet in sweet triple &#8216;super puff&#8217; star system"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have discovered a fourth world in a strange system of ultralight &#8220;super puff&#8221; planets.<\/p>\n<p>The new extrasolar planet or &#8220;<a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/17738-exoplanets.html\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/17738-exoplanets.html\">exoplanet<\/a>&#8221; was discovered around the sun-like star Kepler-51, located around 2,615 light-years away in the constellation of <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/cygnus-constellation.html\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/cygnus-constellation.html\">Cygnus <\/a>(the Swan).<\/p>\n<aside class=\"hawk-nest\" data-block-type=\"embed\" data-render-type=\"fte\" data-skip=\"dealsy\" data-widget-type=\"seasonal\"\/>\n<p>Remarkably, the new world, designated Kepler-51e, isn&#8217;t just the fourth exoplanet found orbiting this star; all these other worlds are cotton-candy-like planets. That means this could be a whole system of some of the <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/exoplanet-2nd-lightest-cotton-candy\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/exoplanet-2nd-lightest-cotton-candy\">lightest planets ever discovered.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Super puff planets are very unusual in that they have very low mass and low density,&#8221; team member Jessica Libby-Roberts of Penn State&#8217;s Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds said in a <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.psu.edu\/news\/eberly-college-science\/story\/new-planet-kepler-51-system-discovered-using-james-webb-space\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.psu.edu\/news\/eberly-college-science\/story\/new-planet-kepler-51-system-discovered-using-james-webb-space\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" rel=\"noopener\">statement<\/a>. &#8220;The three previously known planets that orbit the star, Kepler-51, are about the size of Saturn but only a few times the mass of Earth, resulting in a density like cotton candy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Libby-Roberts added that the team theorizes that these cotton-candy planets have tiny cores and huge, puffy atmospheres of hydrogen or helium.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;How these strange planets formed and how their atmospheres haven\u2019t been blown away by the intense radiation of their young star has remained a mystery,&#8221; she added. &#8220;We planned to use JWST to study one of these planets to help answer these questions, but now we have to explain a fourth low-mass planet in the system!&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"kepler-51-a-sweet-star-system-3\">Kepler-51: A sweet star system<\/h2>\n<p>The fourth occupant of this strange planetary system was discovered when a team led by researchers at Penn State and Osaka Universities set out to investigate the properties of its lightweight sibling, <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/41279-exoplanet-system-dense-as-cotton-candy.html\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/41279-exoplanet-system-dense-as-cotton-candy.html\">Kepler-51d<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"slice-container-newsletterForm-articleInbodyContent-hMKAhhVV4iPtMZQ49dPoF9\" class=\"slice-container newsletter-inbodyContent-slice newsletterForm-articleInbodyContent-hMKAhhVV4iPtMZQ49dPoF9 slice-container-newsletterForm\">\n<div data-hydrate=\"true\" class=\"newsletter-form__wrapper newsletter-form__wrapper--inbodyContent\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-form__container\">\n<section class=\"newsletter-form__top-bar\"\/>\n<section class=\"newsletter-form__main-section\">\n<p class=\"newsletter-form__strapline\">Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The team was shocked when Kepler-51d appeared to cross the face of its parent star, or make a transit, two hours ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n<p><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/39939-tess-satellite-exoplanet-hunter.html\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/39939-tess-satellite-exoplanet-hunter.html\">Transits<\/a> are useful to astronomers because when starlight streams through a planet&#8217;s atmosphere, different elements in that atmosphere absorb light at characteristic wavelengths. This means they leave their &#8220;fingerprint,&#8221; allowing astronomers to determine the atmosphere&#8217;s composition, among other characteristics of the planet, by analyzing the wavelengths of light detected.<\/p>\n<p>Astronomers are accustomed to planets making transits that are either a few minutes early or a few minutes late, and the team&#8217;s calculations were uncertain by 15 minutes. However, that can&#8217;t account for a two-hour error.<\/p>\n<p>They were expecting Kepler-51d to transit at 2 a.m. EDT in June 2023 after successfully using their three-planet model to predict the transit of Kepler-51d in May 2023. The researchers prepared to observe the event with both JWST and the <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/7875-today-spiral-galaxies-ugly-ducklings.html\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/7875-today-spiral-galaxies-ugly-ducklings.html\">Apache Point Observatory<\/a> (APO) telescope. They were shocked when the transit didn&#8217;t happen as predicted, going back to their data and finding it had already occurred.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Thank goodness we started observing a few hours early to set a baseline because 2 a.m. came, then 3, and we still hadn\u2019t observed a change in the star\u2019s brightness with APO,&#8221; Libby-Roberts said. &#8220;After frantically re-running our models and scrutinizing the data, we discovered a <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/30832-kepler-telescope-alien-megastructure.html\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/30832-kepler-telescope-alien-megastructure.html\">slight dip in stellar brightness<\/a> immediately when we started observing with APO, which ended up being the start of the transit \u2014 2 hours early, which is well beyond the 15-minute window of uncertainty from our models!&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure inline-layout\" data-bordeaux-image-check=\"\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\" style=\"max-width:1280px;\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\"><picture><source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GpczjUK6diB4ems6KfaWVR-320-80.jpg.webp 320w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GpczjUK6diB4ems6KfaWVR-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GpczjUK6diB4ems6KfaWVR-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GpczjUK6diB4ems6KfaWVR-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GpczjUK6diB4ems6KfaWVR-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GpczjUK6diB4ems6KfaWVR-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1000px) 970px, calc(100vw - 40px)\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A large, scorching star is seen with two types of planetary transits depicted. In the center plane, multiple black dots indicate a standard transit. In the lower planet, multiple black dots represent a partial grazing transit.\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GpczjUK6diB4ems6KfaWVR-320-80.jpg 320w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GpczjUK6diB4ems6KfaWVR-480-80.jpg 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GpczjUK6diB4ems6KfaWVR-650-80.jpg 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GpczjUK6diB4ems6KfaWVR-970-80.jpg 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GpczjUK6diB4ems6KfaWVR-1024-80.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GpczjUK6diB4ems6KfaWVR-1200-80.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1000px) 970px, calc(100vw - 40px)\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GpczjUK6diB4ems6KfaWVR.jpg\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GpczjUK6diB4ems6KfaWVR.jpg\"\/><\/picture><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption itemprop=\"caption description\" class=\" inline-layout\"><span class=\"caption-text\">A diagram depicts the transit of a planet across the face of its parent star <\/span><span class=\"credit\" itemprop=\"copyrightHolder\">(Image credit: NASA\/ESA\/Elizabeth Wheatley (STScI))<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Turning to archival data from space and ground-based telescopes to explain why they had almost missed the transit with the JWST, the team found that the best explanation was the presence of a hitherto undiscovered world.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We were really puzzled by the early appearance of Kepler-51d, and no amount of fine-tuning the three-planet model could account for such a large discrepancy,\u201d team member and associate professor of earth and space science at Osaka University Kento Masuda said. &#8220;Only adding a fourth planet explained this difference. This marks the first planet discovered by transit timing variations using JWST.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This world is impacting the orbits of the other planets in the system, including Kepler-51d, explaining why it was early for its transit.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We conducted what is called a &#8216;brute force&#8217; search, testing out many different combinations of planet properties to find the four-planet model that explains all of the transit data gathered over the past 14 years,&#8221; Masuda explained. &#8220;We found that the signal is best explained if Kepler-51e has a mass similar to the other three planets and follows a fairly circular orbit of about 264 days \u2014 something we would expect based on other planetary systems.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Other possible solutions we found involve a more <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/exoplanet-massive-hpf-star-habitable-zone-planetary-models\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/exoplanet-massive-hpf-star-habitable-zone-planetary-models\">massive planet on a wider orbit<\/a>, though we think these are less likely.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"how-does-a-star-gather-cotton-candy-planets-3\">How does a star gather cotton candy planets?<\/h2>\n<p>When the team adjusted their models of the Kepler-51 system to account for the new planet, they also had to lower the expected masses of its other planets.<\/p>\n<p>This also impacts theories about the other properties of these planets and how such an unusual <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/early-solar-system-donut-shaped-meteorite-study\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/early-solar-system-donut-shaped-meteorite-study\">planetary system may have formed<\/a>. The researchers need Kepler-51e to transit its star before they can confirm it is a super puff planet.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Super puff planets are fairly rare, and when they do occur, they tend to be the only one in a planetary system,\u201d Libby-Roberts said. &#8220;If trying to explain how three super puffs formed in one system wasn\u2019t challenging enough, now we have to explain a fourth planet, whether it\u2019s a super puff or not. And we can\u2019t rule out additional planets in the system either.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Because Kepler-51e has an orbit of 264 days, more observation time for the system will be required before the researchers can be sure how the new planet&#8217;s gravity impacts its sibling worlds.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Kepler-51e has an orbit slightly larger than <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/44-venus-second-planet-from-the-sun-brightest-planet-in-solar-system.html\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/44-venus-second-planet-from-the-sun-brightest-planet-in-solar-system.html\">Venus <\/a>and is just inside the star\u2019s habitable zone, so a lot more could be going on beyond that distance if we take the time to look,&#8221; Libby-Roberts concluded. &#8220;Continuing to look at transit timing variations might help us discover planets that are further away from their stars and might aid in our search for planets that could <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/18790-habitable-exoplanets-catalog-photos.html\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/18790-habitable-exoplanets-catalog-photos.html\">potentially support life<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The team&#8217;s research was published on Tuesday (Dec. 3) in <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.3847\/1538-3881\/ad83d3\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.3847\/1538-3881\/ad83d3\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" rel=\"noopener\">the Astronomical Journal.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/kepler-51d-superpuff-exoplanet\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have discovered a fourth world in a strange system of ultralight &#8220;super puff&#8221; planets. The new extrasolar planet or &#8220;exoplanet&#8221; was discovered &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=133479\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8628],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=133479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=133479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=133479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=133479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}