OGLE-2012-BLG-0950Lb

OGLE-2012-BLG-0950Lb is a sub-Saturn (super-Neptune)-type planet 2,600 parsecs (8,500 ly) away with 39[1] or 35[2] Earth masses. This type of planet was once thought to be extremely rare because of runaway gas accretion, which would create a gap between 4 and 8 Earth radii or 20 and 80 Earth masses, peaking around 32-64 Earth masses.[3] The planet is 2.6 AU from its star.[1][4] It is likely near-impossible to know much else about the planet's properties (or its star's) because it was detected by gravitational microlensing.[4] The mass of the host star is approximately 0.56 solar masses (consistent with an M0-0.5V-type star).[5] This exoplanet was the first to have its mass found out using only microlens parallax and lens flux.[5]

According to microlensing and Kepler data, analogues to this world should be common, showing that our Solar System is not necessarily a perfect model for planetary formation and the runaway gas accretion model may be incorrect or incomplete. This has implications for habitability because gas/ice giants like Jupiter and Neptune greatly influenced the Earth's water content (see Grand Tack hypothesis).[6]

  1. ^ a b Bartelspublished, Meghan (2019-01-12). "'Sub-Saturns' May Force Scientists to Revise Idea of How Planets Form". Space.com. Retrieved 2023-12-12.
  2. ^ "OGLE-2012-BLG-0950L | NASA Exoplanet Archive". kvmexoweb.ipac.caltech.edu. Retrieved 2023-12-12.
  3. ^ Russell, David G. (2024-01-01). "A sub-Saturn mass-radius desert for planets with equilibrium temperature". Icarus. 407: 115798. arXiv:2307.05836. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2023.115798. ISSN 0019-1035. S2CID 259837216.
  4. ^ a b "Exoplanet-catalog". Exoplanet Exploration: Planets Beyond our Solar System. Retrieved 2023-12-12.
  5. ^ a b Koshimoto, N.; Udalski, A.; Beaulieu, J. P.; Sumi, T.; Bennett, D. P.; Bond, I. A.; Rattenbury, N.; Fukui, A.; Bhattacharya, A.; Suzuki, D. (2016-12-14). "OGLE-2012-bLG-0950Lb: the First Planet Mass Measurement From Only Microlens Parallax and Lens Flux". The Astronomical Journal. 153 (1): 1. arXiv:1607.03267. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/153/1/1. ISSN 0004-6256.
  6. ^ Suzuki, Daisuke; Bennett, David P.; Ida, Shigeru; Mordasini, Christoph; Bhattacharya, Aparna; Bond, Ian A.; Donachie, Martin; Fukui, Akihiko; Hirao, Yuki; Koshimoto, Naoki; Miyazaki, Shota; Nagakane, Masayuki; Ranc, Clément; Rattenbury, Nicholas J.; Sumi, Takahiro (2018-12-19). "Microlensing Results Challenge the Core Accretion Runaway Growth Scenario for Gas Giants". The Astrophysical Journal. 869 (2): L34. arXiv:1812.11785. Bibcode:2018ApJ...869L..34S. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aaf577. ISSN 2041-8213.