Scientists have discovered a new ‘Forbidden’ planet , hiding in the mysterious Neptunian Desert.
The exoplanet is smaller than Neptune but around three times the size of Earth, and was discovered by researchers from the University of Warwick.
While its official name is ‘NGTS-4b’, researchers have nick-named the planet ‘The Forbidden Planet’, due to the fact that it’s the first of its kind to have been found in the Neptunian Desert.
The Neptunian Desert is the region close to stars, where no Neptune-sized planets are found. This area receives strong irradiation from the star, meaning planets don’t retain their gaseous atmosphere.
However, NGTS-4b still has its atmosphere of gas.
This suggests that the planet may have only moved into the Neptunian Desert ‘recently’ (within the last one million years), or that its atmosphere is particularly big.
Dr Richard West, who worked on the study, said: “This planet must be tough - it is right in the zone where we expected Neptune-sized planets could not survive.
“It is truly remarkable that we found a transiting planet via a star dimming by less than 0.2% - this has never been done before by telescopes on the ground, and it was great to find after working on this project for a year.
"We are now scouring out data to see if we can see any more planets in the Neptune Desert - perhaps the desert is greener than was once thought."
