New mega-dense planet defies current theories for how planets form

CoRoT-20b, a new planet that baffles astronomers by defying current theories for how planets form, orbits close to a sunlike star, according to National Geographic.

The planet, which is four-fifths the size of Jupiter, was discovered 4,000 light-years away, reported French site MaxiSciences. CoRoT-20b is thought to be a gas giant and, despite it's relatively small size, it has four times Jupiter's mass, making it one of the densest known planets.

This causes a problem for astronomers, who are baffled by how CoRoT-20b formed, according to National Geographic. If the new dense planet has the same structure as a traditional gas giant — a solid core surrounded by a gassy atmosphere — the planet's core would make up 50% to 77% of its total mass. Jupiter, on the other hand, represents only 15% of its own mass.

CoRoT-20b defies current theories for how planets form, according to MaxiSciences.

Artist view

Original French source

No more infos for the moment.

Edit: English source (Thanks Gortex! )

I wouldn't be at all surprised by this..

I think we as humans are a bit arrogant in our understanding of the universe... science is great, and I live by it .. but I also don't think it's fair to assume we're 100% correct .. I don't believe the laws of physics are laws at all .. I think they are only applicable to our immediate environment.. I wouldn't be shocked if we encountered a region of space where planets defy our known laws entirely ..

I also .. off topic, don't believe math is the universal language as many seem to suggest .. math is still a human concept.. we may one day learn that it's terribly inadequate

S&F

English link for the story .
www.globalpost.com...
Planetary discoveries are rolling in thick and fast at the moment , we seem to be learning new stuff almost on a daily basis ... exiting times

If I just think how much our understanding of the cosmos has increased since I studied astronomy (1984), it makes me wonder how far our knowledge will progress in the next 30 years.

I will always remember the wise words of one of my old professors : "The more you study, and the more you know, the more you realize how little your actually knows".

That is why science is all about for me, always learning new things, always refining hypothesis and theories

that's no moon

Originally posted by Hellhound604
If I just think how much our understanding of the cosmos has increased since I studied astronomy (1984), it makes me wonder how far our knowledge will progress in the next 30 years.

I will always remember the wise words of one of my old professors : "The more you study, and the more you know, the more you realize how little your actually knows".

That is why science is all about for me, always learning new things, always refining hypothesis and theories

Your professor worded it perfectly .. I always regretted never pursuing astrophysics .. it's my passion, instead I went on to to programming and music theory .. equally interesting, but astrophysics and physics in general is still my love..

reply to post by elevenaugust


It doesnt defy my theory of how planets form, after lots of hard work I came to realise that planets are born from the sun, the sun compresses the planet over a long period and eventually spits it out and a new planet is then born.

This also explains planetary collisions, magnetic poles and so forth.

Originally posted by TheMindWar
reply to post by elevenaugust

 

It doesnt defy my theory of how planets form, after lots of hard work I came to realise that planets are born from the sun, the sun compresses the planet over a long period and eventually spits it out and a new planet is then born.

This also explains planetary collisions, magnetic poles and so forth.

I can't quite wrap my mind around how that could work given how many planets exist in the universe vs the number of suns ... but I'm open minded.. care to elaborate a bit? I love a new theory

This causes a problem for astronomers, who are baffled by how CoRoT-20b formed, according to National Geographic.

So we're the real dense planet

reply to post by miniatus

I never pursued astronomy further either, except as a hobby. After astronomy there were other things to study, even up to today , you are never too old to study new things and learn even more

Originally posted by TheMindWar
reply to post by elevenaugust

 

It doesnt defy my theory of how planets form, after lots of hard work I came to realise that planets are born from the sun, the sun compresses the planet over a long period and eventually spits it out and a new planet is then born.

This also explains planetary collisions, magnetic poles and so forth.

then how do you explain extra-solar planets, the so-called nomads?

Last year, researchers detected about a dozen nomad planets, using a technique called gravitational microlensing, which looks for stars whose light is momentarily refocused by the gravity of passing planets.
The research produced evidence that roughly two nomads exist for every typical, so-called main-sequence star in our galaxy. The new study estimates that nomads may be up to 50,000 times more common than that.

www.physorg.com...

reply to post by Hellhound604


EXCELLENT point... unless these planets were ejected great distances over millions of years.. that could be

I still must say I don't really like this theory of planets being born from suns .. it seems far less likely than the normal explanations

This is both on and off topic... but you might love it.. it does go into astronomy/astrophysics quite heavily .. it's a 2 hour interview with dawkins.. I only post it because it's relatively new.. it's from February 2012



It's a wonderful interview

The article is brief, and only hinted at densities. They give a relative size and a relative mass of CoRoT-20b compared to Jupiter but Jupiter's mass is the density just above water. If you combine and slice out a cube of all of what Jupiter is it would have the density of 1.33 grams/cm3 (cubic centimeter). Water is 1g/cm3, Saturn would float in water as its density is the lightest at 0.687g/cm3.

Now Earth has a density of 5.515 g/cm3, slightly more than the planet Mercury at 5.427 g/cm, Uranus is slightly less dense than Jupiter, Neptune slightly more dense.

Somewhere between the destiny of Mars (3.94g/cm3) and Jupiter would more than double the density of CoRoT-20b. All of this is very vaguely relative, Jupiter is mostly hydrogen and helium, the 2 lightest elements, with a small core but a larger percentage of its mass, and from the gaseous reaches of its upper atmosphere to the core lies a myriad of heavy liquid compressed gases, likely exotic isotopes of elements all the way up to metals.

I really am interested in what JUNO may find out to expand our knowledge of what Jupiter is made of, 2016 is going to be the beginning of new discoveries, considering we will soon after that get a close flyby of Pluto by New Horizons already half way there.

So maybe CoRot-20b isn't much of a gas giant but more terrestrial. Its what the numbers they give suggest, we don't have much to go on, no spectrographic readings, no gravitational pulling effects on its star, which I understand is relatively close, closer than Mercury is to our sun. There are hot Jupiters orbiting stars very close and fast, in fact they are more common than our cold Gas giants elsewhere so far as we have discovered.

A 2-month old periodic table of sorts of discovered planets outside of our solar system.




Actually this table I believe includes the planets in our solar system, making Mercury the only hot Mercurian.

NOTE THE NUMBER OF HOT SUPER TERRAINS.

reply to post by Hellhound604


Ejections from solar systems from a myriad of possible occurrences, likely the most common being an unstable orbit to begin with. There was once a simulation site to build your own solar system, and it took a bit of practice to model a stable system without ejections, ejections without collisions.

Originally posted by Planet teleX

This causes a problem for astronomers, who are baffled by how CoRoT-20b formed, according to National Geographic.

So we're the real dense planet

Star for you for making a good funny!

I know, this is off topic (and I really DO find the thread extremely interesting), but it's late, I'm tired, and Planet teleX's post, made me stop and go......"Whaaaa?"

Then I got it and bellowed laughter so loud, that it jerked the dog on the couch awake.

Off to bed.

Before I go however: is it possible this is the core remains of a super gas giant, who's outer atmosphers are gone, leaving the denser core behind?
Just a stab in the dark as I'm really tired. Night all!