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In our solar system, each planet follows a relatively well-defined and mostly circular path around the Sun. Astronomers believe that this is true of many other star systems. But as with everything, in the immensity of the universe, there are bound to be outliers. The distant giant exoplanet known as HR 5183b is one of them.
Unlike all planets in our own system, the orbit of HR 5183b around its host star is extremely tense. Rather than looking like a circle, it is shaped like a long, narrow egg, and this extreme eccentricity makes scientists wonder how it has become.
The idea of a planet orbiting in this way is totally foreign to us here on Earth, but if the planet revolved around our own Sun in the same way, it would sway close enough to the Sun to enter Jupiter's orbit. and then travel. all the way back to the orbit of Neptune before coming back. It takes between 45 and 100 Earth years to complete a single loop, and explain how this strange orbit is originally let the researchers scratch their heads.
"This planet does not look like the planets of our solar system, but even more so, it does not look like any other exoplanet we've discovered so far," said Sarah Blunt, first author of a new article. on the planet published in The astronomical journalsaid in a statement. "The other planets detected far from their stars usually have very weak eccentricities, which means that their orbits are more circular. The fact that this planet has such a high eccentricity suggests a difference in the way it has formed or evolved compared to other planets. "
The best guess for scientists at the moment is that HR 5183 has encountered a planet in orbit around the same star. When the two worlds got too close together, they may have pushed against each other, forcing the HR 5183B into the elongated orbit that we see today.
Image Source: NASA / ESA
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