Some 500 light years away from Earth, a "puffed up" planet is orbiting around a star — HATS-6 — that has researchers at the Australian National University thoroughly intrigued.
"(The planet) must have formed further out and migrated in, but our theories can't explain how this happened," astronomer George Zhou told CNN. "The planet has a similar mass to Saturn, but its radius is similar to Jupiter, so it's quite a puffed up planet."
The discovery — outlined in a study published in The Astronomical Journal — came about after researchers noticed that HATS-6's light dimmed periodically, suggesting something was moving between the star and Earth. Now that astronomers have confirmed the existence of the planet, they still want to answer questions about how such a large planet managed to form from such a small star. Astronomers have theorized that planets form from leftover gas and dust existing in a disc around stars, but HATS-6 is so small it would have had very little leftover material.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Africa could become the next frontier for space programsThe Explainer China and the US are both working on space applications for Africa
-
NASA reveals ‘clearest sign of life’ on Mars yetSpeed Read The evidence came in the form of a rock sample collected on the planet
-
SpaceX breaks Starship losing streak in 10th testspeed read The Starship rocket's test flight was largely successful, deploying eight dummy satellites during its hour in space
-
Rabbits with 'horns' sighted across Coloradospeed read These creatures are infected with the 'mostly harmless' Shope papilloma virus
-
Why does the US want to put nuclear reactors on the moon?Today's Big Question The plans come as NASA is facing significant budget cuts
-
Lithium shows promise in Alzheimer's studySpeed Read Potential new treatments could use small amounts of the common metal
-
Scientists discover cause of massive sea star die-offSpeed Read A bacteria related to cholera has been found responsible for the deaths of more than 5 billion sea stars
-
'Thriving' ecosystem found 30,000 feet underseaSpeed Read Researchers discovered communities of creatures living in frigid, pitch-black waters under high pressure
