Out of the few thousand known exoplanets , uranologist have only been able to directly see a handful . Each and every one of them has been quite unique so far so it was quite a cushion to key out two well-nigh identical exoplanets in two different ace system .
As reported in an upcoming issuance ofThe Astronomical Journal , researchers have find out that exoplanet 2MASS 0249 coke is like a twin to exoplanet beta Pictoris b. They have the same luminance and the same light spectrum . They also have the same people , roughly 13 fourth dimension the mass of Jupiter . The newspaper is currently available onarXiv .
There is another peculiar fact about these two planet . The researchers conceive the star topology they orbit come from the same stellar nursery . Stars form in group from giant cloud of gas and rubble stretching for many lite - twelvemonth . Stars formed this way do n’t have to be similar at all and this is , in fact , the case for these two planets . Beta Pictoris group B orbits a star 10 times brighter than our Sun while 2MASS 0249 c orbits a pair of brown dwarfs , 2,000 meter fainter than the Sun .
This difference is in reality very important . The two would - be duplicate planet have different stars and different origin . Beta Pictoris barn grew near its star , forming from the assemblage of natural gas from the protoplanetary disk , which is how we expect the accelerator pedal heavyweight planets in the Solar System to have formed . 2MASS 0249 degree Celsius formed 300 billion kilometers from its hotshot , and it likely formed flat from the astral nursery .
“ To date , exoplanets found by direct imagination have basically been individuals , each distinct from the other in their appearance and age . Finding two exoplanets with almost identical appearing and yet having formed so differently open a newfangled window for understand these objective , ” co - writer Michael Liu , from the University of Hawai`i Institute for Astronomy , said in astatement .
“ 2MASS 0249 c and beta Pictoris b show us that nature has more than one way to make very similar looking exoplanets , ” carbon monoxide - author Kaitlin Kratter , an astronomer at the University of Arizona , added . " They ’re both considered exoplanets , but 2MASS 0249 c illustrates that such a uncomplicated categorization can hide a complicated reality . ”
The last two decennium have seen our view on erratic organisation be challenged and wobble as more and more planetary objects have been detect beyond the Solar System .
