One of the most beautiful things in science is that no matter how much we have intercourse about the universe we still get surprises which send us back to the drawing board . Exoplanet HD 106906b is one of those surprises . It ’s a huge planet that should n’t exist , but not only does it , astronomers consider it may also have a gang around itself like a superintendent - Saturn .
HD 106906b , 300 promiscuous - years from Earth , is 97 billion kilometre ( 60 billion miles ) from its host principal , almost 22 time further than Neptune is from the Sun , and its orbital planing machine is tilted at an angle of 21 degree from the internal planetary organisation . According to our terrestrial models , the exoplanet can not have spring there , so when it was discovered scientists assumed it had been kick out by the inner part of its ace system of rules .
Using theGemini Planet Imagerand the Hubble Space Telescope , researchers were able to see a extremely disrupted arrangement . The organisation has a detritus magnetic disc extending between 7 billion to over 70 billion kilometers from the adept ( 5 billion to over 46 billion miles ) . The ring is highly asymmetric with the side on the side of HD 106906b being thin and extending almost to the planet , while the disk on the other side of the champion look to be thick and significantly shorter .
astronomer think that this is an indication that the integral system is highly perturbed , and it is potential that when the planet was drive out from the inner star system it stole comets and materials from the detritus disk , which now orbit around HD 106906b .
“ We think that the satellite itself could have capture material from the comet belt , and that the planet is environ by a large dust ring or rubble cerement , ” read Paul Kalas , wind author of the study , in astatement . “ We guide three test and found provisionary evidence for a detritus cloud , but the panel is still out . ”
Two direct images of the cometary rubble and exoplanet skirt the young star HD 106906 . The wider field in depressed register Hubble Space Telescope data where the star ’s blinding light is by artificial means eclipsed ( gray circular mask ) , by Paul Kalas , UC Berkeley
As far as uranologist can tell at the moment , the field tightlipped to the maven has been cleared of debris , which is a possible indication that a monolithic planet is yet to be note in the system and may have been creditworthy for disrupt the system . The satellite will have to be importantly more monolithic than HD 106906b to have done so , which is already quite laboured at 11 times the mass of Jupiter .
The arrangement is very young , with the star HD 106906 being only 13 million years old , and some scientists call up that our primaeval Solar System was very similar , withJupiter kicking another planet out . A deeper sympathy of this system and similar 1 could give us interesting insights into the formation of our own organisation .
The research , which is put out in theAstrophysical Journal , is not definite proof of HD 106906b being an exiled superintendent - Saturn though . The squad accent in the paper that significant follow - up work is necessary to validate and good model the organization .
