Thirty years ago, humanity discovered a priceless cosmic treasure without realizing it: a pulsar system named B1257 + 12, which may possess at least one Earth-mass planet.
B1257 + 12 is a star system with three planets, suspected to have at least one with a mass approximately equal to that of Earth. The three planets orbiting the parent star B1257 + 12 are the first exoplanets (planets outside the Solar System) that humanity identified – in 1992.
As science continues to uncover more exoplanets, the uniqueness of B1257 + 12 has gradually been revealed. The very way they exist is quite strange: B1257 + 12 is a pulsar, which is a type of extremely powerful neutron star.
This pulsar system indeed has rocky planets similar to Earth.
Neutron stars are objects from the “other side”: they are remnants of a giant star that has exploded and collapsed into something tiny. To this day, how planets exist through the explosion or are formed from a neutron star after the explosion remains unclear.
According to SciTech Daily, the significance of the discovery made 30 years ago has been “upgraded” through new research led by the University of Manchester, UK.
Surveying over 800 pulsars, they realized that a system like B1257 + 12 is extremely rare. The chance of an Earth-mass planet being formed around a pulsar is only 0.5%, not to mention that one of the three planets may be even smaller, with a mass equivalent to that of the Moon.
And they are treasures in the literal sense: They are indeed rocky planets similar to Earth, but because they orbit a pulsar, they cannot form in the usual way and are primarily composed of diamond.
The vast dataset of over 800 pulsars from the Jordell Bank Observatory that Manchester scientists have studied also reveals a series of other bizarre pulsar systems. Some possess planets with masses up to 100 times that of Earth, with orbital periods ranging from 20 days to 17 years. Most have elongated elliptical orbits rather than the nearly circular ones found in the Solar System.
Among these 800 pulsar systems, scientists have filtered out 10 potential research subjects, promising to unveil “otherworldly” realms beyond imagination.
Among them, they are “carefully monitoring” a system named PSR J2007 + 3120, which is capable of hosting at least two rocky planets with several times the mass of Earth, with orbital periods ranging from 1.9 to 3.6 years.
