Unusual lemon-shaped exoplanet defies the foundations of planet formation

Astronomers have discovered what seems to be one of many strangest identified worlds within the universe. It orbits a kind of quickly spinning neutron star referred to as a pulsar – this in itself is uncommon, however it’s removed from the weirdest factor in regards to the exoplanet PSR J2322-2650b.

Michael Zhang on the College of Chicago and his colleagues noticed the odd planet, which is greater than 2000 gentle years away from Earth, by way of the James Webb House Telescope, and instantly seen that one thing about it was uncommon. The spectrum of sunshine they measured coming from it didn’t present the same old water and carbon dioxide we’d anticipate finding on a Jupiter-mass world like this one, however as a substitute molecules of carbon.

We now have by no means seen molecular carbon within the environment of any exoplanet earlier than, as a result of any carbon in a planet’s environment is way extra prone to bind to different atoms than to itself. “To be able to have molecular carbon within the environment, you need to eliminate just about every little thing else, all the oxygen, all the nitrogen, and we simply don’t know the way to try this,” says Zhang. “We don’t know of another planetary environment that appears something like this.”

The planet is so near its host star, and the host star is so large, that it’s thought to have been pulled by the pulsar’s gravity into an rectangular, lemon-like form. A full yr there lasts solely 7.8 hours, and even the coldest factors on the planet are about 650°C (1202°F). In contrast to most different large planets, the winds there blow in the other way to the planet’s rotation. “You possibly can think about that this planet would look deep purple, with clouds of graphite within the environment”, like a kind of evil lemon, Zhang says. “I’d say it’s undoubtedly the weirdest exoplanet.”

All of those oddities make it tough to elucidate how PSR J2322-2650b may have presumably fashioned – it appears to defy the established fashions of planet formation. For now, this totally unusual, distant world is a complete thriller.