Like a double-stuffed Oreo of planetary proportions, the star LHS 1903 boasts two rocky exoplanets sandwiching two gaseous ones.
From the star outward, the lineup — rocky-gaseous-gaseous-rocky — defies models that predict rocky planets appearing close in and gaseous ones further out. The configuration hints at a history of violence in the system, potentially refining our understanding of planetary formation, researchers report February 12 in Science.
“Bad stuff does happen in young planetary systems,” says Andrew Cameron, an astronomer at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. “This one has the look of something that’s been turned inside out.”
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