Scientists have found a "forbidden planet" that does not work where it is | MNN

There is something odd about a planet recently discovered about 920 light years from Earth.

The planet, described this week in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, is similar to Neptune – that is, it is a gaseous orb about three times larger than Earth and looks like blue marble swept by the wind of our own solar system. He also lives in an area of ​​space called the Neptunian Desert, where scientists hoped to find exoplanets the approximate size of Neptune – although this is the first time it has been sighted.

Of course, we have seen her kind before. But the real Neptune is the eighth planet of our sun, taking about 165 Earth years to roam around our central star. This planet is spreading around its sun in just 1.34 days. That's because he's incredibly close to his host – so close, in fact, that he should not exist at all.

The rough, rocky surface of the Earth is able to withstand the scorching sun, but a planet like Neptune, swollen by its own gases, should not last long in front of a star.

In fact, it should immediately be completely destroyed, its atmosphere propelled into space as fast as a birthday candle. And yet, this orb embraced by the sun manages to hold it together.

"This planet must be hard, it is exactly in the area where we expected planets the size of Neptune," said the author in a statement, Richard West, of the University of Warwick. . "It's really remarkable that we found a planet in transition through a star at less than 0.2% – this has never been done before with ground-based telescopes, and it was great to find it after working on this project for a year. "

All of this adds up to the most puzzling of spatial quirks – a discovery so unexpected that even the researchers could not help but be creative with his name.

They call it the forbidden planet.

The planet may have recently moved away from a much farther place – and ended up in a very bad neighborhood. (Photo: NASA)

But do not worry; these researchers remain the first scientists – and science fiction moviegoers of the 1950s afterwards. Officially, the international team attributed to the planet the insidious name of NGTS-4b, a term derived from the Next Generation Transit Survey, the terrestrial telescope located in the Atacama Desert in Chile, which spotted the exoplanet.

But Forbidden Planet, with all its sci-fi strangeness, just seems better suited to a world that does not seem to conform to our traditional conceptions of the planet's behavior.

On the other hand, the star that it orbits subscribes to the norms of the huge balls of inflamed plasma. The researchers estimate that the planet's atmosphere is below 1832 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about 1,000 degrees Celsius.

But think: if you could reach the forbidden planet – to overcome obstacles such as the sunlight that melted your face and the overwhelming absence of anything breathing from afar – you would celebrate the New Year almost every day.

Unfortunately, like the planet itself, you probably would not celebrate much. Although the authors of the study suggest that NGTS-4b can keep up with the sun, other scientists are not so sure.

"This planet does not have enough mass to retain its atmosphere, given the fierce heat that reigns near its star," said Gizmodo Coel Hellier, an astronomer at Keele University who n & # 39; 39; had not participated in the study. "This means that he is presumably born much farther from his star and that he has recently passed on his short-term orbit."

This planet, apparently so provocative against its sun, will probably not be long for this universe. In fact, the forbidden planet may have wandered from its original station in the solar system – and found itself in a truly forbidden zone.

Scientists have found a "forbidden planet" that does not work where it is

A planet resembling Neptune has been discovered so close to its sun that it should not exist.