Scientists have discovered a wonderful planet, which is 32 light years away from the earth and has a mass 58 times that of the earth.

Scientists have discovered a wonderful planet, which is 32 light years away from the earth and has a mass 58 times that of the earth.

According to a scientific report published in the British magazine Nature, after years of searching, scientists finally found a planet orbiting the young red dwarf AU Microscopii, which is 32 light years away from the Earth and is hidden by a large number of nebula fragments. According to the known data, this planet should be a gas planet, and others are still under study.

What's so special about AU Microscopii?

Speaking of it, the most special thing about AU Microscopii is that it has only been around 20 million years since its birth. In terms of quality, it is about 50% of the sun. As a red dwarf, this means that its life has just begun, and it is also one of the youngest star systems discovered by scientists in the universe.

Scientists named this newly discovered planet "AU Mic b", which is actually closer to us, only 3 1.9 light years, and its mass is about 58 times that of the Earth. Scientists think it looks more like Neptune, about 8% bigger than Neptune, and it takes about 8.5 days to go around AU Microscopii.

How did scientists discover AU Mic b?

This time, scientists found that it was not easy for AU Microscopii to own a planet, and it took about 15 years before and after. This new discovery has benefited from the observation data of NASA's TESS and the retired Spitzer Space Telescope, especially TESS, which has now become a "red man" for scientists to explore exogalaxies. Previously, it also found a "sub-earth" for scientists.

Because AU Microscopii is very young, powerful stellar flares often erupt, which makes the brightness change of AU Microscopii very obvious. After discovering this situation, scientists input the data obtained from the analysis into TESS, eliminating the influence of stellar flare on observation.

Finally, when "AU Mic b" passed in front of AU Microscopii, scientists confirmed that the brightness of AU Microscopii decreased not because of the disappearance of the stellar flare, but because a planet had just passed in front of it. After demarcating sectors, after 27 days of searching, "AU Mic b" was finally locked.

Natural laboratories around the solar system

For many years, scientists have been hoping to find out the origin of the solar system and a series of processes such as the birth, evolution and stability of a star system. Previously, although many star systems have been discovered outside the solar system, there are even "mini" solar systems. Unfortunately, because they are all very old, there is no way to uncover the mystery of scientists.

As a "baby" star, AU Microscopii is very young, and there may be other planets around it gestating in the nebula debris, which gives scientists a good opportunity for observation and research, and can help people understand the birth and evolution of stars and planets.

Scientists believe that in the future, AU Microscopii may be able to breed a small rocky planet. At the same time, by analyzing the atmospheric composition of "AU Mic b", we can also judge whether there are elements that can breed life in the star system of AU Microscopii, and help scientists understand the situation before the birth of rocky planets such as Earth, Venus and Mars in livable zones, thus helping us better understand the solar system.

refer to

Nature —— A planet in the debris disk around the main sequence star AU Microscopii