Naked gas giant offers first ever glimpse of a planetary core

The exposed planetary core is named TOI-849b.

By James Lloyd

04th July, 2020 at 08:00

Astronomers have discovered the exposed core of a distant gas giant – a finding which will shed new light on the formation of planets such as Jupiter and Saturn.

The planetary core, named TOI-849b, orbits a star much like our own, approximately 730 light-years away. It’s the same size as Neptune in our own Solar System, but contains two to three times as much mass, making it unusually dense.

“[It is] extremely dense for something the size of Neptune, which tells us this planet has a very unusual history,” said lead author Dr David Armstrong at the University of Warwick.

“We would expect a planet this massive to have accreted large quantities of hydrogen and helium when it formed, growing into something similar to Jupiter. The fact that we don’t see those gases lets us know this is an exposed planetary core.”

More:
https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/naked-gas-giant-offers-first-ever-glimpse-of-a-planetary-core/