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ShiloX35 t1_je4nz7m wrote

That is an interesting article. Thank you for posting it. I wonder if the higher portion of heavy elements means that solar system was created from material that has been through more star creation and death cycles than the material of our solar system.

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Krinberry t1_je50zki wrote

There's a few possibilities. Initial state is certainly one possibility; another would be a near-miss with another object that resulted in the ejection of a larger amount of lighter elements due to the short term increase in energy in the localized system, and another is that the proximity to the star and constant barrage of solar wind has driven off part of the outermost layers.

We'll probably find out more with additional study. No matter what, it's interesting stuff!

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Dzhone t1_je524ao wrote

Damn! A three day year for that planet? That's so close to the sun.

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hirsutesuit t1_je55hju wrote

Technically Venus goes through years faster than days (less than a Venus day per Venus year).

I know you're referencing Earth days when talking about the planet in the article, but it has days too!

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Dzhone t1_je5r0go wrote

Ah, I see your point. It could have a larger orbit but just extremely long days

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hirsutesuit t1_je5x0jm wrote

I don't think there's any way to actually determine the spin rate (day length) of exoplanets at this time so they would be talking about Earth days.

Also planets near stars are easier to spot so a super-short orbit is expected.

It can just be confusing which days we're talking about.

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junktrunk909 t1_je55tjm wrote

Yeah it makes me excited because it's a reminder that we're in the frontier days, just starting to explore what's out there, and only currently focusing our telescopes on the most obvious likely planets, those with a steady and repeating orbit, which means they are short duration like this. Over time we'll broaden our search more and likely find many planets that are smaller and longer orbits, more earth like. So much exploring ahead!

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SpectralMagic t1_je5604b wrote

Baffling how we can detect the presence of planets billions of kilometers away. The precision involved is probably ridiculous

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danielravennest t1_je6fqtg wrote

Even low-grade hobby telescopes are polished to 1/16 micron (2.5 millionths of an inch). Serious telescopes are several times more accurate. Optics inherently have to be very precise.

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janlaureys9 t1_je7eqtn wrote

Girl are you a Jupiter-like exoplanet cause you’re so hot you defy all expectations ?

On a more serious note I’m so happy this telescope is doing it’s thing. From all the different kids of discoveries it does I feel like it must constantly be flipping around looking at different directions.

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Mrlee8787 t1_je99z9u wrote

With all these new planets being found surely it's a matter of time we find a planet that can support life just like here on Earth.

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lezboyd t1_je6qfkk wrote

My takeaway from this and other such articles regarding exoplanets is that it seems much more common for gaan giants to be orbiting near their star, and it seems Jupiter is an outlier in that sense. It seems Jupiter would've also been this way if not for the formation of Saturn whose gravitational pull stopped it advancing inwards and caused it to retreat back to where it presently is.

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Jakebsorensen t1_je6xd1q wrote

It also could be possible that we’re just better at finding gas giants close to stars compared to other planet types

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lezboyd t1_je73q33 wrote

Never say never, but the evidence in our own solar system indicates that Jupiter was also on its way inwards until stopped by Saturn. So it may be that gas giants make their way inwards by default unless circumstances dictate otherwise.

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SalmonNgiri t1_je72uec wrote

The science of how we look for planets means it’s a lot easier to see a gas giant close to a star, since their orbit causes the greatest change in the light detected.

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lezboyd t1_je744t7 wrote

I'm skeptical about that. A few days ago, a news article was posted on this sub, where a hot gasgiant with a silica atmosphere was found orbiting a binary star pair at 9x the distance between sun and pluto. We're presently using many instruments and technologies to observe exoplanets and transit method is just one of them.

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