Astronomers from the Australian National University analyzing a small red dwarf star located some 500 light years from Earth have made a startling discovery: the presence of a massive gas giant orbiting far closer to its tiny parent star than should be possible.
This unusual exoplanet, which according to Gizmodo was first indentified thanks to an observed, temporary decline in the already dim amount of light given off by the star, has approximately the same mass as Saturn (roughly 100 times that of Earth). Conversely, its star, HATS-6, is only half the size of our Sun in terms of both mass and diameter, the researchers said.
HATS-6 is one of the smallest stars astronomers have ever seen with a gas giant, and no current model can explain how this gas giant came to be so close to its host star, the website said. The authors reported their findings in a recent edition of The Astronomical Journal.
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