This 'Whiplash Planet' Is Shocking Scientists With It's Bizarre Orbit
An enormous planet, also known as an 'exoplanet', was discovered that is 3 times the size of Jupiter. It's size though is not what makes it unique. Named 'HR 5183 B' by those who discovered it, the planet has truly one of the strangest planets so far, because of its orbit. It has an oblong orbit that gives it a truly unique path through space.
Scientists don't actually have data about the planet's entire orbit, because they have only been aware of the celestial bodies around it since 1990. With its long, arduous path through space, its not surprising we haven't gotten a look at the planet and how it moves, until now.
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Crazy Orbit
HR 5183 B has a very unique path, in that it takes 74 years to make a complete rotation around the sun-like star in orbit. Scientists called it a 'whiplash planet' due to the movement it makes as it gets closer and closer to the star during its course, until it quickly accelerates and slingshots around the star as it gets close enouogh, using its intense gravitational pull to rocket itself towards the rest of its orbit, with its acceleration eventually decaying, and the slow oblong orbit continuing.
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The Oblong Orbit Is Wild
It seems like at some point, these planets are bound to collide. Somehow, that hasn't happened yet and the planets rotate around the sun and with one another, all influencing
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What Does This Mean For Future Research
By detecting the planet's slingshot movement, scientists were able to discover a planet unlike any other they have found so far. They want to continue to study HR 5183 b, maybe to determine its mass, and even simulate the planet's creation to try to understand how something like that came into being.
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