Strange Planets Scientists Can’t Explain - These Shouldn’t Exist! - video Dailymotion

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Astronomers recently found a massive planet, LHS 3154b, that’s over 13 times heavier than Earth, and it’s puzzling scientists. It orbits a small, dim red star, which shouldn't have enough material to form such a huge planet. Normally, stars like this would create much smaller planets. The discovery of LHS 3154b goes against the current theories of how planets form. It would need a planet-forming disk way bigger than expected to exist. This find is important because it could change what we know about how planets form, especially around stars like this that are super common.

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00:00This planet, yeah, the one right here, shouldn't exist, but it does.

00:05A newly discovered planet rotates around a star that's much smaller and dimmer than our Sun.

00:10The planet, however, is enormous.

00:13Such a tiny star couldn't create it, so it's like finding an ostrich egg in a chicken coop.

00:20A team at Penn State built a special tool called the Habitable Zone Planet Finder.

00:25It's an instrument that's supposed to find planets around dim, cool stars.

00:30It's connected to a big telescope in Texas.

00:32The tool looks at the light from these stars, which is mostly in the near-infrared, beyond what our eyes can see.

00:38This gadget can spot changes in a star's speed caused by a planet.

00:43If the star movement slightly changes, that means there must be a gravitational pull nearby.

00:48Years ago, this technique helped find the first known exoplanet around a star like our Sun.

00:53Today, we've improved this method to make more precise measurements.

00:57Our main goal is to find Earth-like planets.

01:00They should be rocky and located in habitable zones, areas around stars where liquid water could exist.

01:07The Doppler technique isn't that great at finding Earth-like worlds yet, but works well for cool, dim stars.

01:13And that's how we discovered the impossible LHS 3154b.

01:18Planets usually form in disks made of gas and dust in space.

01:25Picture a flat, spinning cloud of tiny particles.

01:28These particles come together and stick to each other, creating a flat, rotating disk.

01:34Over time, these tiny bits combine to form a solid core.

01:37This is the starting point for a planet.

01:40Once the core is there, it attracts more dust and even gas like hydrogen and helium.

01:45But making a planet this way isn't easy.

01:48They need a lot of stuff, mass, and materials.

01:52This process is called core accretion.

01:55Stars are a huge help in that process.

01:57Usually, big stars have more gravity, so they can gather more stuff to form planets.

02:02But the star we discovered recently isn't very big.

02:06It's nine times smaller than our Sun.

02:08A star this small shouldn't have a big enough disk to make a heavy planet.

02:12To do that, its disk should have been at least 10 times bigger.

02:17But this heavy planet, LHS 3154b, exists.

02:23Now, this mysterious planet is 13 times heavier than our Earth.

02:28It's similar in size to Neptune.

02:30It's about 50 light-years away from us in the Hercules constellation,

02:33which, in space terms, is very close.

02:36The planet is also super close to its star,

02:39completing one year in almost four days.

02:42This discovery is making scientists rethink their ideas

02:45about how planets and stars come into existence.

02:49There are new theories coming around.

02:51For example, a theory called gravitational instability.

02:55It says that, instead of the pieces coming together bit by bit,

02:59the material in the disk collapses all at once,

03:02directly creating a planet.

03:04But even with this theory,

03:06it's hard to explain how such a heavy planet could form

03:09without a really massive disk.

03:11It'll take us some time to figure out the truth.

03:15This isn't the first planet that makes us doubt our theories.

03:19Recently, scientists found another planet called Hala.

03:22This planet is orbiting a star called Bektu.

03:25And just like the previous one,

03:26it shouldn't really exist.

03:28It's way too close to its star.

03:30Stars change a lot during their lives.

03:32Normally, when a star becomes big

03:34and prepares to leave this world,

03:36it's called the red giant stage.

03:39A star like that tends to destroy

03:41or push away any nearby planets,

03:43creating a huge mess.

03:45Hala rotates around a red giant,

03:47and it should have been swallowed or destroyed

03:49by the expanding star a long time ago.

03:52But it's still hanging there.

03:54Even though Bektu has already started burning helium

03:57and shrunk to a smaller size than expected,

04:00Hala isn't bothered in the slightest.

04:02Scientists called Hala a forbidden planet.

04:06This discovery challenges what we thought

04:08about how planets survive near aging stars.

04:11It raises two theories.

04:13One suggests that Bektu was once two stars,

04:16a white dwarf and a red giant.

04:19Hala orbited them both,

04:20and they merged before the red giant fully expanded.

04:23This allowed Hala to survive,

04:25because the extra helium from the white dwarf

04:28prevented the red giant from growing too much.

04:30The second theory says that Hala formed from the debris

04:33created when the two stars merged.

04:36In this scenario,

04:37Hala would be a very young planet

04:39orbiting an elderly star.

04:41Astronomers plan to continue studying Hala

04:44and look for more planets like that.

04:48Another oddball, besides me,

04:50is called LTT 9779b.

04:54This one scares us too,

04:55because it's too shiny.

04:58The planet reflects 80% of the light from its star.

05:01Regular mirrors reflect from 85% to almost 100% of light,

05:05which means that this mysterious planet

05:07should look like a rough mirror

05:09with aluminum or silver-like reflections.

05:11This is another Neptune-sized planet.

05:15It's located 268 light-years from us

05:17and was discovered by NASA's TESS spacecraft.

05:21It completes a full rotation around its star

05:23in just 19 hours.

05:25It's so close to its star

05:27that it's scorching high,

05:28reaching temperatures over 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit.

05:32Normally, planets this close lose their atmosphere

05:35and turn into bare rocks.

05:37But this one breaks the rules again.

05:39Now, this time,

05:43we know the secret of its survival.

05:45It's because of the planet's shiny metallic clouds,

05:48which are made of glass and titanium salt.

05:51These clouds rain titanium onto its hot surface.

05:54They also reflect a lot of the light,

05:56preventing the planet from getting too hot

05:58and losing its atmosphere.

06:00It's like having a mirror shield.

06:02This planet's size also surprised scientists.

06:05It's way bigger than Earth.

06:07Other planets this close to their stars

06:09are either much bigger gas giants

06:11or small, rocky planets.

06:13This planet is a smaller gas giant,

06:16and scientists didn't expect it to exist

06:18so close to its star.

06:20This is the shiniest planet ever found,

06:22even shinier than Venus.

06:24But despite its cool appearance,

06:26it's probably not a friendly place for life

06:28because of its extreme temperatures

06:30and strange metallic rain.

06:32And our final rule-breaker

06:37is a planet called WASP-107b.

06:41Scientists discovered it

06:42using the James Webb Space Telescope.

06:44It's located around 208 light-years from us

06:47in the Virgo constellation.

06:49It's also fast

06:50and completes an orbit around its star

06:52in just six days.

06:54This is a super-Neptune exoplanet.

06:57It's similar to Jupiter in some ways,

06:59including the same size

07:01and scorching hot temperatures.

07:03But the main difference is that

07:04it's much lighter, weaker, and less dense.

07:07This is the least dense planet

07:08we've discovered so far.

07:10After researching some more,

07:12we also found that it has a tail.

07:15The helium on the planet

07:16extends beyond the transit egress.

07:18The planet is slowly losing its atmosphere

07:21due to extreme ultraviolet radiation

07:23from the star.

07:24This creates a comet-like tail.

07:27So it looks like a fluffy comet.

07:31But that was just the beginning.

07:34The planet's low density, or fluffiness,

07:36allowed astronomers to study

07:38its atmosphere in detail.

07:40They found some surprising things,

07:42like water vapor and clouds

07:44made of fine silicate particles,

07:46which are like really fine-grained sand.

07:49The planet's host star

07:50doesn't emit a lot of high-energy light.

07:52But since WASP-107b is so loose,

07:56the light can penetrate

07:57deep into its atmosphere.

07:59This creates sulfur dioxide,

08:01that smell when you light a match.

08:03In other words,

08:04it's a fluffy planet that rains sand

08:06and smells like matches.

08:08The researchers think

08:09the sand clouds in the atmosphere

08:10form in a similar way

08:12to clouds on Earth.

08:13They just have droplets of sand

08:15instead of water.

08:16These sand droplets condense,

08:18fall,

08:19turn into silicate vapor

08:20and hot layers within the planet,

08:22and then rise again

08:23to form clouds once more.

08:25And, once again,

08:27this planet couldn't have formed

08:28in its current spot.

08:30Astronomers say that it likely

08:31moved closer to its star

08:32from a birth orbit

08:34because it was attracted

08:35by some heavier neighbor.

08:37It also follows

08:38a retrograde orbit,

08:39meaning it orbits

08:40in the opposite direction

08:42to its star's rotation.

08:43All these discoveries

08:45are changing how we understand

08:46planets and their atmospheres,

08:48giving us new insights

08:49into the mysteries

08:50of our own solar system.

Strange Planets Scientists Can’t Explain - These Shouldn’t Exist!

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