The giant gas planet only takes 18 hours to orbit the host star

Astronomers found a Jupiter-like exoplanet located very close to the orange dwarf star 1,060 light-years from Earth.

By observations from a set of 12 telescopes at the Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert in Chile, astronomers from the University of Warwick, UK, led by Dr. James McCormac confirmed the existence of an New gas giant, called NGTS-10b , added to the list of more than 4,000 exoplanets discovered over the past two decades.

New gas giant NGTS-10.(Photo: vofoundation.org).

NGTS-10b is slightly larger in diameter than Jupiter but 2.1 times heavier. It is located only about 1.4% of the astronomical unit (AU), or the average distance from Earth to the Sun, and completes an orbit in 18.4 hours.

This gas exoplanet is so close to its host star that scientists can see its orbital decay over time. If the current interaction patterns between the planets and the stars are correct, the team estimates that the time it takes for NGTS-10b to complete a spin around NGTS-10 will be 7 seconds shorter in the next decade and gradually move. spiral in shape before crashing into the host star after 38 million years.

Although located very close to NGTS-10, NGTS-10b is described as not hotter than gas planets located close to other host stars, because NGTS-10 dwarfs have a temperature lower than 1,380 ° C and also diameter like the mass only 70% of that of the Sun. The team's findings were published in the Monthly Notices journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of England.