16 Cygni B
Interstellar
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16 Cygni B b would fit well into prevailing theories of planetary formation except for one fact. Despite its Jupiter like mass and average distance from its star, this planet has an extremely eccentic orbit. Every 2.2 years, the planet's orbit takes it between a Venus-like distance of 0.6 AUs to a distance of 2.7 AUs, further than Mars.
This means that the planet undergoes extreme differences in temperature throughout its year. How this would effect a Jovian world is unclear. No major seasonal changes have been recorded on any of the four Jovians of our own solar system. It is known, however, that temperature does seem to effect color variations in the clouds of Jupiter. High clouds tend to be darker, where low clouds are lighter colored. The altitude of a cloud layer effects its temperature, with high clouds being cooler.
Also, the planet Saturn, sitting in a cooler orbit than Jupiter has more upper atmosphere haze, giving it a more smooth appearance than the churning clouds of Jupiter. One may imagine 16 Cygni B b changing appearence as it traverses its orbit. Close in, the planet would be relatively bright, with warmed white clouds. Further out, the planet would darken and become more hazy as temperatures drop.
In our speculation, let us also imagine that 16 Cygni B b has an axis tilt around 45 degrees. This would mean that in some parts of its orbit, large portions of the surface would be in constant light while others are in constant darkness. One hemisphere of the planet would have much brighter colorations than the other, giving it a look quite different from the Jovians we know.
Such dramatic changes in distance may have other effects than just altering the temperature. Changing tidal effects may keep the planet's core more active than most, and auroras may be more pronounced as the planet's magnetic field plows into that of 16 Cygni B.
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16 Cygni B b
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16 Cygni B b Statistics
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Perhaps the most important question is how did a planet of Jupiter mass form with such an eccentric orbit in the first plance. Current theories of planet formation suggest that planetary orbits should be nearly circular, as are the orbits of the planets in our own solar system. Before the discovery of 16 Cygni B's planet, the record holder for most eccentric orbit was 70 Virginis B, with an eccentricity of 0.4. Although such a high eccentricity flew in the face of current theories, this fact was mostly ignored. Massive 70 Virginis B may very well be a small Brown Dwarf, a failed star, and therefore not required to follow accepted laws of planet formation. But the discovery of 16 Cygni B b, a definite planet with an even higher eccentricity, forces scientists to re-examine accepted theory. |
The consequences of the eccentric orbit might even be more bizzare for any massive moons of 16 Cygni B b. If a world of nearly Earth mass orbited this planet, it would undergo such drastic seasonal changes that if it had water oceans, the oceans would boil into the atmosphere during the summer and glaciate during the winter. If this moon's mass was small enough, all of it's water would eventually boil into space during the summer, just as it happened on Venus. If the moon was more massive, however, it may stand a chance at maintaining it's now vaporous water long enough for it to rain back to the surface to form oceans during the fall. As it's host planet orbited further and further from the warmth of its star, the moon's polar caps would form and grow until the entire globe was ice covered, only to melt again in the spring. Such extreme changes in climate would make the formation and evolution of life nearly impossible.
Planetary Orbit of 16 Cygni B b
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