Thanks to the Swiss spatial telescope Cheops, astronomers have discovered a “suicidal” planet. Called Hip 67522 B, this exoplanet triggers solar eruptions so powerful that they literally blow its atmosphere and make it spray.
According to the European Space Agency (ESA), this planet could move from the size of Jupiter to that of Neptune in the next 100 million years. This is the first proof of a “suicidal” planet, according to this work published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
Such eruptions can also occur on our star, the sun, when its magnetic field twists. Large quantities of radiation and loaded particles are then projected in space. When these particles meet the terrestrial magnetic field and the atmosphere, they can produce boreal aurora.
A very young star
But scientists have now shown a planet for the first time can trigger such eruptions. Since the 1990s, astronomers assumed that certain planets could orbit so close to their mother star that they could disturb the magnetic field and thus trigger eruptions.
The planet HIP 67522 B offered the perfect conditions for this: it is very close to its star. It only takes him seven days to go around.
In addition, the star around which she turns is very young, barely 17 million years old. In comparison, our sun, aged 4.5 billion years, is about 265 times older. The younger a star, the more energy and magnetic activity it has.
Although such effects have been supposed in theory, current observations surprised scientists: according to ESA, the eruptions observed during this research are 100 times more energetic than expected. The authors now plan to observe other similar star-lay systems to determine if this behavior is more common.
This research was carried out as part of the “Guest Observations” program in Cheops. Scientists who are not part of the Cheops team have had time to make their own observations with the telescope.
