A new planet, with a mass 10 times that of Jupiter, has been discovered, which challenges what scientists know so far about the formation of new worlds. The so-called “b Centauri (AB) b”, or simply “b Centauri b”, is located about 325 light years away in the constellation Centaurus and orbits the binary star system b Centauri and is the most massive system to host a planet.
This finding was published in the journal Nature, in which it is stated that its main star is three times hotter than the Sun and due to the high temperatures it produces, it emits enormous amounts of ultraviolet radiation and X-rays. This discovery leaves the scientific community stunnedIt was not believed that the existence of planets was possible near such large and massive stars.
“Type B stars are generally considered to be quite destructive and dangerous environments, so it was believed that the formation of large planets around them should be excessively difficult,” explained Markus Janson, an astronomer at Stockholm University, lead author of the study. .
It is one of the largest planets ever seen
This supermassive world is in one of the widest known orbits, at a distance from the central stars that is 100 times greater than the distance between Jupiter and the Sun; experts theorize that the remoteness of the stars that make up the binary system could be key to the planet’s survival.
Experts hope to find out how “b Centauri b” was formedFor now they have the hypothesis that its nucleus was created first and then interstellar gas and dust accumulated around it. “It could have formed somewhere else and reached its current location through dynamic interactions, or it could have formed through gravitational instability,” argue the professors.
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