For some time we have been talking about a planet that has completely baffled scientists who are dedicated to the investigation of the cosmos, and all its mysteries. It shouldn’t exist, it should be cosmic dust and experts don’t understand how it is still orbiting its host star.
Like It will also happen with our Sun, each massive star goes through different stages. In their very long lives they offer friendly environments for life as we know it, while there are times when they are a source of destruction to everything that comes close.
One of those last stages is when they transform into red giants, a phase in which they have already exhausted the hydrogen in their cores and have begun fusing helium into heavier elements. During this time there is so much energy that it radiates that there should be no planets in its vicinity.
That is why a scientific team has been dismayed to detect a world orbiting a red giant. The planet is the size of Jupiter, it is called 8 UMi bo popularly called as Halla and the massive star it orbits is called Baekdu, also known as 8 Ursae Minoris.
🔴 Jupiter-like planet, located 520 light-years from Earth, would be an unlikely survivor of a violent transition from its star.
The gaseous planet is known as 8 UMi and was given the name Halla after it was initially discovered by Christian astronomers in 2015. pic.twitter.com/ISF2a4leRm– Salt out. (@Salpafuera_) June 29, 2023
It is located about 520 light years from Earth. It was discovered in 2015 by Korean astronomers using the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Halla is a “hot Jupiter”, which means that it orbits very close to its star, at a distance of only 0.46 astronomical units. This is about half the distance between the Earth and the Sun, according to what he reports Forbes.
Due to its proximity to its star, Halla is thought to be very hot, with an estimated surface temperature of about 1,200 degrees Celsius (2,192 degrees Fahrenheit).
Planets are not expected to survive so close to a red giant star. When a star becomes a red giant, it expands and can engulf any planet that is too close. However, Halla seems to have survived this process and it is unclear how she has accomplished this feat.
One possibility is that Halla was originally in a wider orbit around Baekdu and migrated inward over time. Another possibility is that Baekdu may have originally been two stars that merged, and this prevented either star from expanding.