We didnt expect to find any planet that looks like this, he told Gizmodo.
The new findings are detailed in astudypublished Wednesday in The Astronomical Journal.
TIC365102760 b, also known as the Phoenix, defies theories of how planets die.
An illustration of planet TIC365102760 b orbiting around its star.Illustration: Roberto Molar Candanosa/Johns Hopkins University.
The exoplanet is classified as a hot Neptune, with its size being somewhere in between Neptune and Saturn.
So then, our question became, how did this planet actually hold on to its atmosphere?
And thats something that were still working on.
Keck Observatory in Hawaii, which tracks the tiny wobbles of stars because of orbiting planets.
The new discovery, however, suggests an alternative ending.
That also has implications for all of the evolutionary steps leading up to that.
It also determines how long life can survive on Earth as the Sun reaches its final stages.
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