Big world around tiny star puts new spin on planet formation
September 27, 2019
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A giant world discovered around a tiny star is putting a new spin on how planets form.
Astronomers reported Thursday they've found a Jupiter-like planet orbiting a star that's a mere 12% the mass of our sun. There may even be another big gas planet lurking in this system 31 light-years away.
The Spanish-led team wrote in the journal Science that the newly confirmed planet did not form the usual, gradual way, where a solid core of merging particles takes shape before a gas buildup. Instead, in a surprise to scientists, the planet seems to have arisen straight from ga...
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