{"id":215853,"date":"2026-04-08T20:58:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T20:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/this-planet-is-too-big-for-its-star-discovering-something-even-more-disconcerting\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T20:58:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T20:58:43","slug":"this-planet-is-too-big-for-its-star-discovering-something-even-more-disconcerting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/this-planet-is-too-big-for-its-star-discovering-something-even-more-disconcerting\/","title":{"rendered":"This Planet is Too Big for Its Star: Discovering Something Even More Disconcerting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The universe is so immense that it should not surprise us that it is full of exceptions. But even so, there are still findings so puzzling that they obsess astronomers. This is, for example, the case of TOI-5205 b, an exoplanet that attracts attention due to its size, too large for its star. That alone would be truly exceptional, but a new study has found that, if that were not enough, it also has a very unusual atmosphere.<\/p>\n

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Too Big for a Red Dwarf<\/h2>\n

TOI-5205 b is a gas giant, slightly larger than Jupiter. However, unlike Jupiter, which orbits our Sun, TOI-5205 b orbits a red dwarf, a relatively cold and small star, with a mass ranging from 7.5% to 50% of the mass of our Sun. Typically, stars are significantly larger than the planets that orbit them. In this case, the radius of the red dwarf is only four times that of TOI-5205 b. For comparison, our Sun has a radius about ten times larger than that of Jupiter. The mass of this exoplanet is equally remarkable, equivalent to 0.3% of the mass of the red dwarf, while Jupiter’s mass is approximately 0.095% of the Sun’s mass. This makes TOI-5205 b unusually large for its star.<\/p>\n

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An Even More Disconcerting Clue<\/h2>\n

Recently, a team of scientists from NASA and the Carnegie Science Institute set out to study the composition of the atmosphere of TOI-5205 b, looking for clues about its origin and size. However, their findings proved to be even more puzzling. They analyzed the planet’s atmosphere by studying the transit of the planet\u2014examining the changes in light from its star as the planet passes in front of it.<\/p>\n

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As light interacts with the planet’s atmosphere, it engages with the molecules present. Different elements reflect light across various bands of the electromagnetic spectrum, allowing researchers to determine the elements involved using a spectrograph. <\/p>\n

Astronomical Metals<\/h3>\n

In astronomical terms, any element other than hydrogen or helium is considered a metal. This definition creates an interesting concept known as metallicity, which refers to the proportion of metals within the atmosphere of a planet or star. When a star forms, it typically takes most of the hydrogen and helium from the stellar nursery, resulting in planets that generally have a higher proportion of metals compared to their parent stars. However, TOI-5205 b deviates from this trend; its metallicity is actually lower than that of the red dwarf.<\/p>\n

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Hidden Metals<\/h2>\n

To explore this unexpected phenomenon, the authors of a recent study conducted mathematical modeling to understand how the atmosphere of TOI-5205 b could evolve under various scenarios. Their findings suggested that the metals may have been buried within the planet rather than remaining in the atmosphere. <\/p>\n

This means that, while TOI-5205 b may have absorbed a greater amount of metals during its formation, these elements did not linger in the atmosphere. Instead, they became trapped inside the planet. The atmosphere itself contains some helium and hydrogen, but also features other compounds such as methane and hydrogen sulfide.<\/p>\n

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What This Exception Teaches Us<\/h2>\n

As noted by one of the study’s authors, Anjali Piette, \u201cthese findings have implications for our understanding of the process of giant planet formation that occurs early in the life of a star.\u201d In astronomy, sometimes it is the exception that provides the richest data. This peculiar case of TOI-5205 b challenges our existing paradigms and illustrates the importance of thinking outside the box to unravel the mysteries of celestial formations.<\/p>\n

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Image | Katherine Cain (Carnegie Science)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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General News – 2<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The universe is so immense that it should not surprise us that it is full of exceptions. But even so, there are still findings so puzzling that they obsess astronomers. This is, for example, the case of TOI-5205 b, an exoplanet that attracts attention due to its size, too large for its star. That alone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":215854,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36399],"tags":[363,48251,28261,9623,1631],"class_list":["post-215853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-big","tag-disconcerting","tag-discovering","tag-planet","tag-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215855,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215853\/revisions\/215855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}