Astronomers discover a giant planet and dub it the 'Forbidden Planet'

astronomers discover “Planet Prohibited” outside our solar system, which drew a lot of attention from the scientific community. This is because the Planet is very large, which earned it the nickname “forbidden”, and it also orbits around a much smaller star. With this, scientists are beginning to question the way we understand the emergence of planets.

More details about the “Forbidden Planet”

Photo: Katherine Cain/Carnegie Institution for Science.

That planet is about 280 light-years from our solar system and has been named TOI 5205b. For their discovery, scientists used the Transiting Explanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, which is a NASA satellite that launched in 2018. Since then, a mission to search for new planets in other distant solar systems has begun.

In case, this satellite can recognize stars in the universe and possible blockages of their lights. After all, the blockage of a star's light can be indicative of a planet orbiting around it, as is the case with TOI 5202b. According to scientists, the giant planet orbits around a red dwarf star that was named TOI-5205.

However, an unusual fact drew a lot of attention from the current scientific community. That's because this planet is much larger than its star, which is unprecedented in NASA discoveries. Furthermore, this discovery could redefine everything we imagine about the creation of planets and the formation of solar systems.

How the discovery of this planet questions science

According to modern theories, stars emerge from clouds of gas and dust and precede planets. In fact, planets arise through materials left over from the creation of a star that begin to orbit it due to gravity. Thus, the most common is to find planets smaller than their stars that orbit them, as in our solar system.

However, this is not what happens with TOI 5205b, since it is larger than the star. Although NASA has already discovered stars with larger planets orbiting them, this is the first time that a gaseous planet of this size has been seen orbiting an M dwarf star. Thus, new theories should be elaborated to understand this phenomenon.