Why Scientists Are So Fascinated By Exoplanet Phoenix » TwistedSifter

Many astrophysicists focus on the question of what makes a planet habitable.

We know a lot about why our own host has been such a supportive host for life, but we are still discovering new aspects of how those specific conditions came about.

Exoplanet Phoenix is ​​now causing a stir, showing that there may be other ways a planet can hold on to its atmosphere than previously thought.

The planet, officially named TIC265102760, is smaller, hotter and older than anyone expected for its class. It is also slightly larger than Earth, more in the Neptune category.

This is a big deal, since Phoenix is ​​six times closer to its sun than Mercury is to ours – And the sun is hotter and is classified as a red giant.

This is what our Sun will one day evolve into, a development that has until now been seen as the beginning of the end of Earth’s habitability.

The temperature and the constant flow of particles should have destroyed the atmosphere long ago. Scientists like Sam Grunblatt, lead author of the current paper, are eager to understand why this is such an exception.

“This planet is not evolving as we thought, it seems to have a much larger, less dense atmosphere than we expected for these systems. How that atmosphere is retained despite the proximity of such a large host star is a big question.”

There are other “hot Neptunes,” but Phoenix is ​​not like any of them.

“It’s the smallest planet we’ve ever found around one of these red giants, and probably the lowest-mass planet ever found around a red giant star. That’s why it looks so strange. We don’t know why it still has an atmosphere, while other ‘hot Neptunes’ that are much smaller and much denser seem to lose their atmospheres in much less extreme environments.”

Don’t get us wrong, the vibe of Phoenix is is being stripped, but so slowly that it will likely survive the death of the planet.

As stars grow and evolve into red giants, they affect the orbits of the nearest planets. The nearest planet will spiral inward and be destroyed.

This is likely the fate of Phoenix in about 100 million years – and also of Earth in 5 billion years.

However, these observations suggest that we don’t know for sure how our home planet will get from point A to point B.

“We don’t understand the late-stage evolution of planetary systems very well. This tells us that Earth’s atmosphere might not evolve exactly as we thought.”

Scientists enjoy their work so much that they realize there is so much more to learn.

Space truly is the final frontier and there are undoubtedly more questions than answers.

If you liked that story, read what happened when a guy gave ChatGPT $100 to make as much money as possible. It turned out exactly as you expected.