Massive World Slingshots Around Star
A planet several times the mass of Jupiter is seen slingshotting around its parent star, revealing signs of a close encounter in the distant past.
A massive exoplanet, at least three times as massive as Jupiter, has been spotted slingshotting around its parent star. The bizarre, egg-shaped orbit of this world, dubbed HR 5183 b, brings this world as close to its star as the asteroid belt is to the Sun in our own system, and as far out as the orbit of Neptune.
This ancient planetary close encounter may not have have wrecked havoc for this planet, but instead, could have exiled this world far from its star, HR 5183. Planets with highly-elliptical orbits have been discovered in alien solar systems before, but this newly-discovered world is the first one found this far from its parent star.
“Other planets detected far away from their stars tend to have very low eccentricities, meaning that their orbits are more circular. The fact that this planet has such a high eccentricity speaks to some difference in the way that it either formed or evolved relative to the other planets.” said Sarah Blunt, a graduate student at CalTech.
That was a close one!
The unusual orbit of HR 5183 b suggests the orbit of this world may have been perturbed by a close encounter with another planet with several…
