Hai Vuong star has 'eaten' a planet

Astronomers believe that Neptune has swallowed up a giant planet in the solar system, and robbed the satellite of the ill-fated celestial body.

Neptune is a giant gas planet.Photo: wordpress.com.

Neptune is the eighth planet from the sun out and weighs the third in the solar system. In addition, it is the planet that is farthest away from the sun. Neptune is made up of liquid gases like Uranus - the seventh planet from the sun.

New Zealand said, during the past years, Neptune has always been a mystery to the scientific world. They wondered because the studies showed that the clouds of gas created this planet were not large, but Neptune, like Uranus, was very large. Neptune is 17 times heavier than Earth, and Uranus weighs 14.5 times. Another strange thing is Triton, a Neptune satellite, that rotates in the opposite direction to it.

In 2005, a group of scientists hypothesized that the two giant planets changed positions in the previous turbulent period. Under that scenario, Uranus and Neptune have been created in a position closer to the sun than today. Over time they move away from the sun and change positions during that process.

If the hypothesis is correct, the amount of matter they leave behind during the transition is large enough to create a planet twice the mass of the earth, according to Steven Desch, an expert at the University of Arizona, America.

Although only a satellite, Triton is bigger than Pluto. Moving in the opposite direction with Neptune proves that Triton does not form with Neptune, but is "kidnapped". Desch argued that Triton was 'matched' with the other hypothetical planet. With the presence of the ill-fated planet, Neptune couldn't 'catch' Triton. But after the planet accidentally moves near Neptune and is swallowed by the opponent, Triton's kinetic energy weakens and the movement speed decreases. It was eventually sucked towards Neptune and became a satellite.

Neptune radiates more heat than Uranus although both have the same amount of matter and structure. This phenomenon will become understandable if we imagine the Sea King has swallowed the planet twice as heavy as the earth. The energy released from Neptune is the result of a collision between it and the other planet.