A crazy planet 620 light-years from Earth has surprised scientists after it is experiencing a record-breaking "growth burst."
During a feeding frenzy that lasted several months, the planet sucked in six billion tons of gas and dust every second.
The distant world, officially known as Cha 1107-7626, is located in the Chamaeleon constellation and is what scientists call a "rogue planet."
This means that it is a free mass that floats on its own in space, without orbiting a star, just as the Earth orbits the Sun.
Immersed in a rotating spiral of gas and dust, the planet absorbs a constant stream of matter to nourish itself, in a process called accretion.
However, while this was the fastest burst of accretion ever recorded, researchers believe this is the "end point" of the planet's growth.
"This crazy planet has practically finished its growth. The real powerful bursts of growth happened earlier, when the object was still shrouded in dust and gas, invisible to us," said Dr Alexander Scholz, astronomer at the University of St Andrews.
Although Cha 1107-7626 is now between five and 10 times larger than Jupiter, the crazy planet is still in its early stages.
During this period, these solitary objects can undergo very rapid periods of growth, known as accretion bursts.
Most of these explosions occur in the early moments of the planet's formation, when it is still covered in dust that telescopes cannot penetrate.
Dr. Scholz says:
"By the time we can observe them, they are already close to the finished product. The real early evolution happens when they are immersed in a dense cloud."
However, using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, scientists managed to capture the crazy planet during a particularly rapid burst of growth.
Over the course of several weeks, the planet's accretion rate increased approximately eightfold, peaking in August and remaining at that level for several months.
Dr Víctor Almendros-Abad, astronomer at the National Institute for Astrophysics, Italy, says:
"This is the most powerful accretion episode ever recorded on a planetary-mass object. People may think of planets as quiet, stable worlds, but with this discovery we see that planetary-mass objects floating freely in space can be exciting places."
Scientists still don't know exactly what causes such powerful and unexpected eruptions.
Some theories suggest that nearby companion objects could cause a "snow-break" in the accretion disks, while others propose that the outburst could be caused by disturbances in the surrounding nebula.
This new study doesn't settle this debate, but by analyzing the light from the planet before and after the explosion, the researchers uncovered new details about the accretion process.
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, Dr Almendros-Abad and his colleagues discovered that there was now water vapor in the disks around the planet, which had not been there before.
The scientists also showed that the planet's magnetic field plays a major role in channeling matter from the inner boundary of the disk toward the planet.
This is very similar to how stars use their magnetic fields to suck in gas in the early stages of their lives.
Scientists have long thought that crazy planets and stars might grow in similar ways.
For example, stars also grow through accretion bursts, where they gather most of their mass in short bursts, followed by long periods of quiescence.
This new discovery "further blurs the line" between crazy planets and stars.
This suggests that large gas giant planets may form in the same way as stars, by squeezing dust clouds and forming their own disks.
Some of the largest dwarf planets can even form smaller planets from the material left in the disk, creating miniature planetary systems without a sun.
Dr Amelia Bayo, astronomer at the European Southern Observatory, says:
"The idea that a planetary object can behave like a star is impressive and invites us to think about what worlds beyond Earth might be like during their early stages."
How do planets form from clouds of dust and gas in a nebula?
According to our current understanding, stars and their planets form from a cloud of dust and gas within a larger cloud called a nebula.
As gravity pulls matter into the collapsing cloud, the center of the cloud expands and compresses, heating up more and more.
This dense, hot core becomes the core of a new star.
Meanwhile, the cloud's internal movements cause it to rotate.
When the cloud becomes too compressed, most of it begins to rotate in the same direction, gradually stretching into a thin disk, a bit like a ball of dough being turned and taking the shape of a pizza.
These disks around the star, or protoplanetary disks, as astronomers call them, are the places where planets are born. /GazetaExpress/
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