A remarkable discovery was made recently by scientists with both the planet Gaia-4b and its brown dwarf counterpart, which challenges conventional scientific views on celestial bodies. Gaia-4b is a super-Jupiter planet with 12 times the mass of Jupiter, orbiting a star smaller than our sun, estimated at 64 percent of the sun’s mass.
It takes about 570 Earth days to complete one revolution around its star. Its size makes it one of the heaviest known planets to orbit a smaller star, demonstrating the diversity of planetary systems in our galaxy.
Along with Gaia-4b, researchers have selected a brown dwarf they call Gaia-5b, which orbits a star smaller than the sun at only about 34 percent of its mass. Brown dwarfs are intriguing objects because they lie between the largest planets and the smallest stars; they often lack the internal processes that power true stars. Gaia-5b adds one more chapter to the intricate saga of the brown dwarf.
Both are about 244 and 134 light-years away from Earth, respectively: These are relatively far away but are nevertheless significant additions to the catalog of known celestial bodies. The identification and characterization of the objects were made possible due to the tremendous work done by the European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft. Although Gaia has retired from running out of fuel, it has provided us with invaluable information about our universe.
Following Gaia’s actions, the confirmed exoplanets now surpass 5,800. There are thousands more candidates still undergoing review, but it is entirely plausible that many more discoveries will be made. The work done by Gaia has deepened our understanding of the universe and the variety of planets and stars that populate it.