Science

Weird, enormous planets may be stolen from stars in 'planetary heists'

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Strange planets nicknamed BEASTies are unlikely to have formed around their stars like most worlds, so they may have been stolen from other stars or captured from deep space

Space



7 September 2022

By Leah Crane

Artist’s impression of a BEASTie. The image shows a gas giant planet (like Jupiter) on a distant orbit around a blue, massive star. The planet is likely to have been captured or stolen from another star. The background stars are members of the same star-forming region and could be the star the BEASTie was born around.

Artist’s impression of a a gas giant planet on a distant orbit around a massive star

Mark Garlick

Giant stars stealing planets from smaller stars could explain why a strange trio of planets are in orbits that they shouldn’t be.

B-type stars are extremely hot stars more than three times as massive as the sun. Astronomers didn’t think they could host planets. Then in late 2021 and early 2022, a survey called the B-star Exoplanet Abundance Study (BEAST) found three huge planets on wide orbits around B-type stars.

“These planets are …

source: newscientist.com