Scientists find two odd planets in space that shouldn't exist together. Know more
Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope has detected water vapour, carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere of a mini-Neptune orbiting alongside a hot Jupiter, 190 light years from Earth.
Somewhere in our galaxy, about 190 light years from Earth, which is roughly 1,800 trillion kilometres away, two planets are circling a star in a partnership so strange that scientists have been puzzled since they first spotted it in 2020.
One is a hot Jupiter, a massive ball of gas roughly the size of Jupiter, our solar system's largest planet.
The other is a mini-Neptune, a smaller world made mostly of gas with a rocky core at its heart.
Mini-Neptunes are the most common type of planet in the Milky Way, yet curiously, our own solar system has none.
The puzzle is this: hot Jupiters are gravitational bullies. They are so enormous and their gravitational pull is so powerful that any planet daring to orbit closer to the star usually gets flung far into deep space.
And yet, here these two are, orbiting peacefully side by side.
Now, a team of scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) thinks they have cracked the mystery.
WHAT DID SCIENTISTS FIND IN THE SMALLER PLANET'S ATMOSPHERE?
Using Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope, a powerful space observatory that can detect light across wavelengths completely invisible to the human eye, researchers examined the atmosphere of the smaller planet, called TOI-1130b.
They found it packed with water vapour, carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, and traces of methane. These are heavy molecules, which means they weigh significantly more than the simple hydrogen and helium gases that make up lighter atmospheres.
This discovery was unexpected. Scientists had long assumed that a mini-Neptune orbiting so close to its star would carry only a thin, light atmosphere, because the intense heat from the star would stop heavier molecules from building up.
WHERE DID THESE TWO STRANGE PLANETS ACTUALLY COME FROM?
The answer lies in something called the frost line. Picture an invisible circle drawn around a star.
Beyond this line, it is so cold that water does not float as vapour but freezes instantly into solid ice. In this frigid zone, tiny dust particles get coated in ice to form small icy pebbles.
A young, growing planet in this region slowly pulls these pebbles inward and builds up a thick, molecule-rich atmosphere over millions of years.
Scientists now believe both TOI-1130b and its hot Jupiter companion were born in this icy outer region, far from their star. Over time, they slowly drifted inward together through a process called planetary migration, keeping their rich atmospheres intact along the way.
This is the first time astronomers have measured the atmosphere of a mini-Neptune sitting inside the orbit of a hot Jupiter. The findings, published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, confirm that this unusual type of planetary origin actually exists in nature.
Lead author Saugata Barat, a researcher at MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, says this discovery gives scientists their first real confirmation that mini-Neptunes can indeed form beyond the frost line and travel inward without losing what makes them so fascinating.
Somewhere in our galaxy, about 190 light years from Earth, which is roughly 1,800 trillion kilometres away, two planets are circling a star in a partnership so strange that scientists have been puzzled since they first spotted it in 2020.
One is a hot Jupiter, a massive ball of gas roughly the size of Jupiter, our solar system's largest planet.
The other is a mini-Neptune, a smaller world made mostly of gas with a rocky core at its heart.
Mini-Neptunes are the most common type of planet in the Milky Way, yet curiously, our own solar system has none.
The puzzle is this: hot Jupiters are gravitational bullies. They are so enormous and their gravitational pull is so powerful that any planet daring to orbit closer to the star usually gets flung far into deep space.
And yet, here these two are, orbiting peacefully side by side.
Now, a team of scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) thinks they have cracked the mystery.
WHAT DID SCIENTISTS FIND IN THE SMALLER PLANET'S ATMOSPHERE?
Using Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope, a powerful space observatory that can detect light across wavelengths completely invisible to the human eye, researchers examined the atmosphere of the smaller planet, called TOI-1130b.
They found it packed with water vapour, carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, and traces of methane. These are heavy molecules, which means they weigh significantly more than the simple hydrogen and helium gases that make up lighter atmospheres.
This discovery was unexpected. Scientists had long assumed that a mini-Neptune orbiting so close to its star would carry only a thin, light atmosphere, because the intense heat from the star would stop heavier molecules from building up.
WHERE DID THESE TWO STRANGE PLANETS ACTUALLY COME FROM?
The answer lies in something called the frost line. Picture an invisible circle drawn around a star.
Beyond this line, it is so cold that water does not float as vapour but freezes instantly into solid ice. In this frigid zone, tiny dust particles get coated in ice to form small icy pebbles.
A young, growing planet in this region slowly pulls these pebbles inward and builds up a thick, molecule-rich atmosphere over millions of years.
Scientists now believe both TOI-1130b and its hot Jupiter companion were born in this icy outer region, far from their star. Over time, they slowly drifted inward together through a process called planetary migration, keeping their rich atmospheres intact along the way.
This is the first time astronomers have measured the atmosphere of a mini-Neptune sitting inside the orbit of a hot Jupiter. The findings, published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, confirm that this unusual type of planetary origin actually exists in nature.
Lead author Saugata Barat, a researcher at MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, says this discovery gives scientists their first real confirmation that mini-Neptunes can indeed form beyond the frost line and travel inward without losing what makes them so fascinating.
