On a vast rocky planet far away in our solar system, a year passes in just half a day.
Astronomers are continually discovering unique planets in deep space, and a new survey has just uncovered 15 new planets, including a unique super-Earth. These are rocky planets that are 30 to 70 percent larger than Earth, but not as massive as planets like Neptune. This latest super-Earth discovery, named TOI-1798 c, is unusual in that it’s so close to its star that it takes about 12 hours to complete one orbit. (It has a USP, or ultra-short period, orbit.)
While some super-Earths exist in warmer regions of the solar system and may harbor liquid water, TOI-1798 c is scorching hot.
“TOI-1798 c orbits its star so quickly that a year on its planet is less than half an Earth day,” said Ian Crossfield, an astronomer at the University of Kansas and co-author of the new study. statement“USP’s closeness to its star means it is extremely hot and receives more than 3,000 times the radiation that Earth receives from the Sun. Being in this extreme environment means that the planet has likely lost any atmosphere it originally formed.”
A NASA scientist saw the first Voyager images, and he was horrified by what he saw.
A new exoplanet (a planet outside our solar system) has recently been discovered. Published in Astrophysical Journal.
Mashable Lightspeed
While life probably couldn’t survive in such a hot, irradiated place, planets like this one can help us learn more about what kinds of rocky planets exist out there and how other solar systems differ from our own. For example, based on what scientists currently know, Super-Earths are common Other solar systems have one star, Earth does not. Most solar systems have more than one star. Earth only has one.
“This suggests that our solar system may not be as typical as we assumed,” Crossfield said.
Artist’s impression of the two exoplanets orbiting TOI-1798. The super-Earth is the inner planet.
Credit: W. M. Keck Observatory / Adam Makarenko
To find the super-Earth TOI-1798 c, which is several light years away, the researchers used two observatories: NASA’s instrument TESS (short for Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), which is equipped with a sensitive camera that looks for the attenuation of a star’s light as a planet passes in front of it, providing evidence of the planet’s existence and details of its orbit.
But that’s not all: The exoplanet team also used the Earth-based W. M. Keck Observatory at the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii to determine the planet’s mass. They were able to measure the slight wobble of the star as the planet orbits it, which ultimately allowed them to determine the super-Earth’s mass. From this information, they could infer its density and other characteristics.
So far (as of May 24, 2024), astronomers have 5,632 planets identified Our Milky Way galaxy contains hundreds of billions of stars. Trillion Of an exoplanet.
