Researchers have recently discovered what it looks like on the inside of a planet, according to a new study.
- This is the first time scientists have discovered an exposed core of a planet, according to the study.
What’s going on:
- Scientists said they’ve seen “inside” a planet for the first time. Researchers looked inside the interior of the planet to learn about its makeup and structure, according to the study, which was published in the journal “Nature.”
- The study’s lead author David Armstrong, a physicist at the University of Warwick in the U.K., said in a statement that “this is the first time that we’ve discovered an intact exposed core of a gas giant (planet) around a star.”
- The star and planet core — called TOI-849b — are reportedly 730 light-years from Earth, USA Today reports. The sun is like our sun. The planet is about the size of the (relatively) nearby Neptune according to USA Today.
So what does this mean?
Researchers had their first chance to see the core of a massive gas planet — similar to Jupiter or Saturn. Gaseous planets tend to have a solid core beneath the gas. However, it is hard to see them, according to BBC News.
According to the study, there are two reasons why scientists could see inside the gas planet and find the core:
- The planet failed to become a full gas planet, meaning the atmosphere never reached its potential.
- The planet saw its gas stripped away. The planet might have just seen the atmosphere ripped away as it lingered to close to the nearby star or another planet.
Armstrong told BBC News: “I think one of the biggest clues is that we found the planet inside the ‘Hot Neptunian desert’, which is this region of parameter space where we don’t typically find planets.”
“That hints that it has gone through quite an unusual evolution. To me that hints that it is more likely that it did lose its atmosphere ... but we’ll need some more observations to be sure.”