The KELT North telescope in southern Arizona carries a lens no more powerful than a high-end digital camera, but it just revealed the existence of two very unusual faraway planets. One is a massive, puffed-up oddity that could change ideas of how solar systems evolve. The other orbits a very bright star, and will allow astronomers to make detailed measurements of the atmospheres of these bizarre worlds.
Astronomers are beginning to suspect that something unusual happens during the evolution of such solar systems that drives massive planets into kinds of close encounters. The presence of a stellar sibling orbiting both of the newly discovered solar systems may be a “smoking gun” clue that past interactions between the planets and these distant siblings is an important part of that process.
No comments:
Post a Comment