Twin ‘super-puff’ planets offer clues to cosmic evolution

{"text":[[{"start":7.7,"text":"Scientists have identified twin faraway “super-puff” planets that are less dense than candyfloss, offering vital clues to how celestial bodies form and evolve."}],[{"start":17.9,"text":"The wispy worlds, known as TOI-791 b and c, are about 1,110 light years from Earth and may owe their unusual lightness to vast atmospheres rich in the gases hydrogen and helium. "}],[{"start":34.4,"text":"Their discovery underlines how the study of exoplanets, which exist beyond the solar system, is reshaping understanding of the range of cosmic environments — and the possibilities they may present for life."}],[{"start":46.5,"text":"“Only a handful of these super-puffy planets are known, and it is even rarer to find two in the same system,” said George Dransfield, lead author of the latest research and a University of Oxford scientist. “These planets challenge our understanding of how planets accrete gas, migrate and evolve over system lifetimes.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":66.25,"text":"The TOI-791 twins are among the lowest-density giant worlds detected, according to the research involving scientists from the University of Birmingham and Côte d’Azur Observatory with Nice University. The planetary pair have maintained their remarkable diffuseness despite growing to roughly the size of Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system."}],[{"start":88.25,"text":"The worlds are thought to be siblings born from the same disc of gas and dust around their star, according to the research published on Thursday in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. They move in an unusual gravitational synchronicity, with the inner planet completing five orbits in the time it takes the outer one to mark almost exactly three."}],[{"start":108.45,"text":"Super-puff worlds “don’t fit comfortably into our standard picture of planet formation” and the rare find of two together could offer a great chance to know why, said Bibiana Prinoth, a researcher at the European Southern Observatory, an intergovernmental astronomy organisation."}],[{"start":125.15,"text":"These ultra-light celestial bodies buck the general understanding that a planet with a very large gaseous envelope would be expected to become much more massive, she said."}],[{"start":135.5,"text":"“It may help us understand whether super-puffs form under very special conditions, whether they’re a temporary phase in planetary evolution, or whether there are processes in planet formation that we’re still missing altogether,” Prinoth said. “They may also teach us about atmospheric loss, which is one of the key processes determining how planets evolve over billions of years.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":154.85,"text":"The fluffy duo are part of a fast-advancing effort to catalogue planets beyond our solar system, driven by the deployment of ever more sophisticated technology to perform observations such as chemical analysis. "}],[{"start":169.04999999999998,"text":"Initiatives such as the European Space Agency’s Plato mission due to launch next year are seeking to identify Earth-like worlds, which may make them potential hosts for lifeforms."}],[{"start":180.1,"text":"“Despite almost 6,300 planets discovered as of today, nature continues to surprise us,” Dransfield said."}],[{"start":188.04999999999998,"text":"The TOI-791 siblings’ insubstantial nature makes them unlikely candidates to be friendly to living things since they probably lack solid surfaces, said William Bains, senior research fellow at Cardiff University’s School of Physics and Astronomy. "}],[{"start":203.1,"text":"Any organism floating around in the gas envelope would be “sucked down by atmospheric movement to where it would be baked at tens of thousands of degrees”, he said."}],[{"start":218.65,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1782487467_6826.mp3"}