2023-06-12 09:18:21
A team of European astronomers with the help of the CHEOPS space telescope has identified four new, small, not-so-easy exoplanets.
According to scientists, these are four small planets of the Neptune class, or gas dwarfs, the temperature on their surfaces reaches 217-277 degrees Celsius. These planets are smaller, cooler and harder to find than the so-called hot Jupiters, the most common of the exoplanets previously discovered.
Scientists have used data from the CHEOPS telescope and the TESS satellite to discover these small exoplanets.
Scientists called the discovered exoplanets the names of TOI 5678 b and HIP 9618 c, whose size is equivalent to the size of Neptune or somewhat less than it. Its radius is 4.9 and 3.4 Earth’s radii, respectively. TOI 5678 b has a mass 20 times that of Earth and HIP 9618 c 7.5 times that of Earth.
According to Dr. Solin Ulmar Moll of the University of Geneva, scientists can know the size and mass of the planet, determine its density and get an idea of its composition.
She says, “But it is not sufficient for the small planets of Neptune to determine the density. Because there are many hypotheses regarding the components of the planets: either rocky ones with a high percentage of gases, or planets rich in water and water vapor in their atmospheres.”
In the same way, astronomers from Hungary and Britain discovered two small exoplanets, which they called HD 22946d and HD 15906 b. The radius of the first is 2.6 times greater than the radius of the Earth, and the radius of the second – 2.2 times greater.
All information regarding these discoveries has been published in Astronomy & Astrophysics and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
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