Eerie ‘forbidden’ alien planet that shouldn’t exist discovered after scientists spotted ‘light signal’

SCIENTISTS have uncovered a “forbidden” planet that shouldn’t exist.

It’s existence challenges the rulebook on how scientists thought planets were born.

A team of astronomers at Washington’s Carnegie Institute discovered the planet inside an “unusual” planetary system.

The system has a large gas giant planet orbiting a small red dwarf star called TOI-5205 – which astronomers nicknamed the “forbidden” planet.

Although red dwarfs host more planets, on average, than bigger types of stars, their formation histories make them unlikely candidates to host gas giants, scientists said.

TOI 5205b was first identified by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite.

But after some thorough digging by Kanodia’s team, they found that it is a significant outlier in regards to what scientists know about how planets form.

“The host star, TOI-5205, is just about four times the size of Jupiter, yet it has somehow managed to form a Jupiter-sized planet, which is quite surprising,” said Shubham Kanodia, the lead astronomer on the findings.

Until now, no gas giant has been found in a planetary system around a planet like TOI-5205, which is classed as a low-mass M dwarf.

“TOI-5205b’s existence stretches what we know about the disks in which these planets are born,” Kanodia explained.

“In the beginning, if there isn’t enough rocky material in the disk to form the initial core, then one cannot form a gas giant planet.

“And at the end, if the disk evaporates away before the massive core is formed, then one cannot form a gas giant planet.

“And yet TOI-5205b formed despite these guardrails. Based on our nominal current understanding of planet formation, TOI-5205b should not exist; it is a ‘forbidden’ planet.”

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