The planet in question may have had at some point a regular orbit around its star, but a massive phenomenon, which is now unknown, that also created the irregularities in the comet belt around the astral body, pushed the planet towards the edge of the solar system. Surprisingly, the planet is located 21 degrees above the plane of the nebulosity. The circular orange inset shows a region much closer to HD 106906. Using the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI), researchers found a narrow loop of nebulosity suggesting that a planetary system formed close to the star, but somehow the architecture of the outer regions is severely disrupted.
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According to an worldwide team of astronomers, led by Dr Paul Kalas of the University of California, Berkeley, HD 106906b may have a dusty ring system of its own.
“We think that the planet itself could have captured material from the comet belt, and that the planet is surrounded by a large dust ring or dust shroud”, said Paul Kalas, a professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley.
According to Abhi Rajan from the Arizona State University, measurements obtained from this planet also suggest that this planet possesses more dust than others, as the team is continuing to do follow up observations to confirm if the planet is indeed enshrouded by a disc.
Scientists believe this ejection sheds light into the processes of young planetary systems and the potential for these kinds of planets to go rogue.
HD 106906b is approximately 11 times larger than Jupiter and orbits a star that is slightly bigger than the Sun and, at just 13 million years old, is much younger than our planet. One of the ways to know is to study the violent episodes of gravitational disturbances surrounding other young stars which kick out many celestial objects and planets, he said. They searched for another large planet near the star that may have interacted with HD 106906b, but they did not find anything outside the Uranus-sized orbit. The hangout can be viewed via YouTube.
Three-hundred light-years away, juvenile star HD 106906 is going through a tumultuous period. After nearly two years of investigating, scientists have published a research paper about HD 106906 b, the exiled exoplanet.
One theory was that the exoplanet formed similar to a star, by condensing gas and dust from its own spinning cloud. The interactions of the planets which stirred the comets closer to the star might have kicked out the exoplanet as well, they said. Observations revealed a dusty ring of debris, similar in size to the solar system’s Kuiper Belt, surrounding the star.
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The lopsided belt around the star in question, the side facing the far exoplanet being the thinnest and most prolonged, further suggests that a gravitational phenomenon happened during the early years of the stars.
