Evolution: giant planets reach size early

The research conducted by researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIPExamine the planetary system around the star “V1298 Tau” Relatively young, about 20 million years old. The sun-like star is orbited by two giant planets that were discovered in 2019 using data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope. The mass of these young giant planets was not previously known. The researchers have now determined their mass using radial velocity measurements from telescopes in La Palma, southern Spain and Tenerife, including Stella II telescope from AIP.

A different development than expected

said Victor J. Sanchez Béjart, co-author of the work published in the magazine “Natural Astronomy” He appeared. “We now know that they can reach a size comparable to that of the planets in our solar system in a very short time.”

Studying such modern planetary systems gives researchers an idea of ​​what happened in the early development of our solar system. So far it is unclear whether the evolution of V1298 Tau and its planets is similar to that of most planets or if it is an exception.

“If this is the normal case, then it means that the evolution of planets like Jupiter and Saturn was very different from what we think,” said co-author Nicholas Lodio. So the results help to get a more solid idea of ​​the early evolution of planetary systems like ours.