---
title: "Bizarre Exoplanet Might Be a Gas Giant That Lost its Gas"
description: "By probing into a gigantic, distant exoplanet, astronomers have a rare opportunity to better understand our solar system’s gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn. That’s because the exoplanet, TOI-849b, is the exposed core of a similar gas giant, Space.com reports. An international team of astronomers suspects that either the gassy outer layers of […]"
date: "2020-04-13"
modified: "2020-04-13"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/bizarre-exoplanet-gas-giant-lost"
categories:
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "Exoplanets"
  - "space"
  - "the digest"
---

# Bizarre Exoplanet Might Be a Gas Giant That Lost its Gas

![Astronomers think that a bizarre exoplanet called TOI-849b is the stripped core of a gas giant that for some reason or another lost its atmosphere.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/bizarre-exoplanet-gas-giant-lost.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: NASA/ESA\</em\>*

## Gassy Core

By probing a gigantic, distant exoplanet, astronomers have a rare opportunity to better understand our solar system's gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn.

That's because the exoplanet, TOI-849b, appears to be the exposed core of a similar gas giant, *[Space.com ](<https://www.space.com/weird-alien-planet-gas-giant-core.html>)*[reports](<https://www.space.com/weird-alien-planet-gas-giant-core.html>). An international team of astronomers suspects that either the gassy outer layers of the exoplanet were somehow blown away — or never formed in the first place — providing a rare opportunity to peek under the hood.

## Playing With Fire

What astronomers have gleaned thus far is that the exoplanet is about a big as Neptune but has 40 times the mass of the entire Earth, *Space.com* reports. It also orbits its star blazingly fast, whipping around in a complete revolution every 18.4 hours.

But what they don't know is what happened to its outer layers. In that regard their research, [shared online last month](<https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.10314>) and recently accepted for publication in the journal *Nature*, remains speculative.

## Cosmic Forensics

The most obvious explanation for why only the core of TOI-849b remains: its [atmosphere was incinerated away](<https://futurism.com/mars-atmosphere-methane-missing>) from its close proximity to a star, *Space.com* reports. It's also possible TOI-849b collided with another exoplanet while it was whipping around in its obscenely-fast orbit.

Or maybe it was just a late bloomer. If it formed after most of its solar system had already done so, it's possible there just wasn't enough raw material left to make a fully-formed gas giant, meaning it was only ever just a giant core.

**READ MORE:** [Weird alien planet may be core of stripped-down gas giant](<https://www.space.com/weird-alien-planet-gas-giant-core.html>) \[*Space.com*\]

**More on gas giants:** *[NASA Data Shows Something Leaking Out of Uranus](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/something-leaking-out-uranus>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)