Astronomers discovered the Forbidden Planet, NGTS- 4b in the Neptunian Desert
03, Jun 2019
Prelims level :
Mains level :
- An international collaboration of astronomers with the University of Warwick, I-JK, have discovered an exoplanet, Next-Generation Transit Survey(NGTS)- 4b, the Forbidden Planet, in the Neptunian Desert.
- It is smaller than Neptune but 3 times the size of the Earth.
- The Research was led by Dr. Richard West including Professor Peter Wheatley, Dr. Daniel Bayliss and Dr. James McCormac from the Astronomy and Astrophysics Group at the University of Warwick.
- The Forbidden Planet with a mass of 20 Earth masses, radius 20% smaller than Neptune and temperature of 1000 degree Celsius, orbits around the star in only 1.3 days and its atmosphere as gases.
- NGTS, situated at the European Southern Observatory Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert, Chile.