Mysterious Exoplanet Discovery Defies What Astronomers Thought They Knew

this is baffling…

Apparently astronomers are absolutely perplexed at this finding.  This thing is as big as Neptune and it is made of pure rock.  Almost always when a planet reaches this large of a size, or at least those observed by astronomers it involves some or all parts gas.  Here is a bit more about this strange find:

BD+20594b sits about 500 light-years away in the constellation Aries. The planet is about 16 times as massive as Earth but just a little over twice as wide, making its density about 8 grams per cubic centimeter, Néstor Espinoza, an astrophysicist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in Santiago, and colleagues report. Earth’s density, by comparison, is 5.5 grams per cubic centimeter.

The fact that it takes 42 days to orbit around its star may make a bit more sense here but it is still surprising to the team who spotted it.

Think about that 16x the size of Earth.  And the fact that it is so close to its star is incredibly rare.  Or at least in terms of what we have been able to view up to this point.

Let’s check out a cool video on other mysterious exoplanets on page 2

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