Astronomers at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of North Carolina and other scientific organizations in the United States reported the discovery of the youngest planet, which is a double of Jupiter, located in 414 light years (127 parsecs) from Earth, relatively close to the Solar system. Its age is only 17 million years. Their results the researchers published in the journal the Astronomical Journal.
Exoplanet orbiting the star HIP 67522, was found by the transit method using the space telescope TESS. The device pinpoints the planet during their repeated passage on the background of the star when the brightness of the lights falls. One revolution around the star takes about seven days, and its radius is comparable to ten Earth radii. These figures are typical for the gas giant, which is extremely close to the parent star that is which is a “hot Jupiter”. The likely mass of the planet HIP 67522 b lies in the range from 0.18 to five Jupiter masses.
The scientists were able to detect signs of the presence of the second planet in the system, but the researchers are not sure of its existence as the transit of an unknown object, tentatively identified as HIP 67522 c, was recorded only once. The cases correspond exoplanet with a radius equal to eight Earth radii and an orbital period in excess of 24 days. Future observations with the help of TESS can confirm its existence, however, this is only possible if the orbital period of the planet is not too long. The probability of this is estimated at 54%, so the second planet may long remain not confirmed.
The researchers also determined the parameters of the star HIP 67522, located in the stellar Association of Scorpius-Centaurus (the average distance to the star group reaches 380-470 light years). Its age is approximately 17 million years and the weight is comparable to the mass of the Sun. Along with a small eccentricity of the orbit 67522 HIP b, the orientation of the axis of rotation of the star (which lies in the same plane as the orbit of the planet) and the possible presence of the second planet of this indicates several possible mechanisms for the formation of the system. Thus, the gas giant could initially occur close to the sun, when it was still a protostar, or he quickly migrated from a more distant orbit.
Scientists believe that the orbits of the planets in the system can still be unstable. This indicates the potential existence of a second gas giant. System with two large planets, one of which is a hot Jupiter, a rare, but heavenly bodies are closely cooperating with each other for hundreds of millions of years from the date of occurrence.
