Astronomers Unearth a Lemon-Shaped World
In a discovery that sounds more like science fiction than stellar science, researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have identified a planet with an unmistakable lemon shape orbiting a star the size of a city. The unusual geometry and the system’s unlikely scale are driving a fresh wave of questions about how planets form and survive in extreme environments.
A New Kind of Exoplanet
The object, provisionally named PSR J2322-2650b, appears to be a Jupiter-sized planet locked into an orbit around an incredibly small host star. While giant planets aren’t new to exoplanet catalogs, a lemon-shaped silhouette around a star the size of a city is unprecedented in JWST-era astronomy. The planet’s unusual shape hints at intense tidal forces, rapid rotation, or novel atmospheric dynamics that bend and stretch the world in ways scientists are only beginning to model.
Why Shape Matters
Planetary shape is more than a curiosity. It reveals the strength of gravitational interactions and the physical properties of the planet’s crust, mantle, and atmosphere. In this case, the lemon-like form could indicate a tidal distortion caused by the star’s gravity, pushing the planet into an elongated figure as it swings through its orbit. Such distortions also affect heat distribution, weather patterns, and potential ionization in the planet’s upper layers, offering a rare laboratory for extreme planetary physics.
How JWST Made the Discovery
Webb’s powerful infrared instruments allow scientists to measure minute variations in a planet’s brightness as it passes in front of its star. The city-sized star’s faint glow makes the orbiting lemon easier to detect than in other systems, where larger, louder stars can drown out subtle signals. Data from multiple JWST observations helped confirm the planet’s size, orbit, and unusual shape, while atmospheric models provided clues about its composition and dynamics.
What This Means for Our Cosmic Census
Besides being a remarkable oddity, this discovery expands the known diversity of planetary systems. If lemon-shaped planets can exist around such stars, what other bizarre configurations are hiding in the galaxy? Scientists are now reexamining formation theories to account for these rare but informative cases. The finding also underscores JWST’s role in pushing the boundaries of what we know about worlds beyond our solar system.
Looking Ahead
As researchers compile follow-up measurements, they hope to refine estimates of the planet’s mass, composition, and atmospheric properties. Future observations may reveal whether the lemon shape is a permanent feature or a seasonal distortion tied to its orbit and proximity to the star. The discovery is sure to inspire new simulations and perhaps prompt the hunt for additional, similarly peculiar exoplanets in JWST’s growing catalog.
