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Astronomers have discovered a massive planet orbiting an unusually small star, defying current theories of planetary formation. The star, TOI-6894 , is located about 240 light-years away in the constellation Leo and has just 21% the mass of the Sun. Yet, it hosts a gas giant roughly the size of Saturn much larger than expected for such a small star. This challenges existing models, which suggest that small stars form only small, rocky planets like Earth. Forming giant planets typically requires large amounts of material in a protoplanetary disk, which small stars aren't thought to possess. 'It's hard to build a giant planet in such conditions,' said study co-author Vincent Van Eylen.
The planet completes an orbit in just three days, lying 40 times closer to its star than Earth is to the Sun. Despite its close orbit, it's cooler than typical 'hot Jupiters.' Its mass is 56% hat of Saturn and 17% of Jupiter. Data from NASA's TESS and the ESO's VLT were used for the discovery, with further observations planned using the James Webb Space Telescope.
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