The strange object disturbs the classification of extraterrestrial planets

The European COROT spacecraft has detected an object the size of a planet that is orbiting its star with a very close distance, unlike any previously discovered object. Scientists are not sure if this strange object is actually an incomplete planet or star.

The object, called COROT-exo-3b, is about the same size as Jupiter, but weighs 20 times . The cycle of a cycle of its orbit around its mother star, is slightly larger than the Sun, lasting only 4 days and 6 hours,

COROT-exo-3b was discovered when a satellite observed that the light intensity of the star decreased each time the object (COROT-exo-3b) passed through the front. Dr Magali Deleuil of Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM), who led the research, said: 'We were surprised to find that this large object orbits the star with close proximity. so. COROT-exo-3b is very special - we are still debating its nature. '

The process of finding orbits with orbital cycles less than ten days is close to how close the mother has been for nearly 15 years . During this time, scientists met planets with 12 times the mass of Jupiter, or stars that were 70 times more massive than Jupiter, but had no objects in between. So COROT-exo-3b with 20 times the mass of Jupiter is an interesting surprise.

This strange finding is not on the regular list of planets or brown stars. A brown star is an 'incomplete star', or a sub-stellar object does not undergo nuclear core fusion , but represents some of the star's characteristics.

Dr. Francois Bouchy, of the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris (IAP), member of the research team said: 'COROT-exo-3b is a very happy object discovered by luck. However, it may be a member of a large group of planets orbiting stars larger than the Sun. We began to think that the bigger the star, the bigger the planet rotates around. '

Researcher Dr. Hans Deeg, of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC), explains why this new object is important: 'We always ask about this, we are not sure. where is the boundary between the planet and the brown star '.

The size is equivalent to the Sun, COROT-exo-3b and Jupiter, the artist's impression.(Photo: OAMP)

If it is a planet, COROT-exo-3b is the largest and most dense planet ever discovered - double the lead. Studying this object will give an understanding of how to classify similar objects. The team also wants to find out how such a large mass object is formed at a very close distance from its parent star.

The process of finding and detecting COROT-exo-3b is supported by ground-based observations from a worldwide system of observatory observatories. The Observatoire de Haute Provence telescope (France) studies the orbital mass and star characteristics of the object, the Telescope of the Southern European observatory at Paranal and La Silla (Chile) observing the characteristics of the mother star, Dai The astronomical state of Thuringia in Tautenburg (Germany) is used to determine the major and the orbit of an object; Canadian-French-Hawaiian telescope at Mauna Kea looks for signals of dim stars in the surrounding area; The Swiss Euler telescope in La Silla (Chile) helps determine the mass and trajectory of objects; Wise Observatory (Israel), ESA telescope at Mt. Teide, Tenerife and the telescope of the Astrophysics Institute in the Canary Islands are used to block signals from other stars.

The results of the study are published in 'Transiting exoplanets from the COROT space mission, VI. COROT-exo-3b: The first secure resident of the Brown-dwarf desert, M, Deleuil et al, in the magazine Astronomy and Astrophysics.

COROT is a space ship directed by the French Space Agency (CNES), with operations from ESA, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Spain, and Brazil. It was launched in December 2006. It is equipped with a 27 cm lens telescope, designed to detect small changes in the luminous intensity of nearby stars. The main objective of this spacecraft is to search for an alien planet and study stars.