Some Planets Seem to Have a Strange Ability to Make Their Star Age Slower

Humans can only dream about their families, and stars seem to have an anti-aging trick about them.

The star's aging process may be slowed by the presence of the right-sized planet. A gas giant can counteract the loss of rotation caused by the star's magnetic field by transferring inertia to the star.

It's difficult to study the effect exoplanets have on their hosts. You can't tell if the rotation speed has been influenced by the planet or the star.

There are many stars in the universe. A pair of stellar twins are usually born in the same place. Their properties are usually very similar. They have the same size, color, and brightness.

The equivalent of a twin study for stars was conducted by a team of astronomer led by Nikoleta Ilic.

They wanted to find systems where one star has exoplanets and the other does. The planet-less star was used as a control to look for changes that could be caused by the planet around the other star.

One star system alone wouldn't be enough to establish a pattern.

In medicine, you need a lot of patients to enroll in a study to find out if the effects are real. This study gives us confidence that hot Jupiters are making the stars they act younger than they are.

The hot Jupiters are not normal. They hang out incredibly close to their stars, with periods of days or even hours. They earned their title at that location.

Ilic and her colleagues obtained the data from the Chandra observatory. Because stars that spin faster exhibit more X-ray activity than stars that spin slower, they were able to find a difference between the two stars.

The stars with hot Jupiters were the ones with the fastest speeds. That doesn't allow us to have our own Sun.

Younger stars tend to spin faster than older stars. It is suggested that hot Jupiters are similar towrinkle cream for stars. A transfer of spin from the exoplanet to the star increases the star's spin.

This interaction is currently shrouded in mystery. Researchers assumed that it was tidal due to the attraction between the two bodies. Magnetic forces could be involved. It could be possible to figure out the details.

"In previous cases, there were some very intriguing hints, but now we have statistical evidence that some planets are influencing their stars and keeping them acting young."

Future studies will help to understand this effect.

The research has been published in a journal.