The team, including researchers from Warwick and other institutions, focused on Neptunian exoplanets, which share similar features to Neptune but exist beyond our solar system. They discovered that planets in the desert are rare, as their atmospheres have been stripped away by intense radiation, leaving behind rocky cores. In contrast, the savannah is farther from radiation, allowing planets in this region to retain their atmospheres for millions of years.
Between these two regions, researchers have identified the Neptunian Ridge, an area with a high concentration of planets. Current evidence suggests that many of the planets in the ridge may have migrated to their present location through a process known as high-eccentricity tidal migration, which can draw planets closer to their stars throughout their lifetimes.
In comparison, planets in the savannah likely migrated through disk-driven migration, a process that occurs shortly after the planets are formed. These differing migration mechanisms may explain the distribution of planets in the savannah and the desert, with the few planets in the desert being rare, extreme cases.
David Armstrong, Associate Professor of Physics at the University of Warwick, explained: "Our work to observe this new structure in space is highly significant in helping us map the exoplanet landscape. As scientists, we're always striving to understand why planets are in the condition they are in, and how they ended up where they are. The discovery of the Neptunian ridge helps answer these questions, unveiling part of the geography of exoplanets out there, and is a hugely exciting discovery."
Research Report:Mapping the exo-Neptunian landscape
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