by |
Khaled Younes |
Tuesday 19 July 2022 – 06:00 PM
An international team of astronomers has discovered two new exoplanets using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey (TESS) satellite.
The newly discovered alien worlds, called TOI-5152 b and TOI-5153 b, are three times larger than the largest planet in the solar system.
TESS is scanning regarding 200,000 of the brightest stars near the sun in search of transiting exoplanets. It identified more than 5,700 candidate exoplanets (TESS Objects of Interest, or TOI), of which 227 have been confirmed so far.
A group of astronomers led by Solen-Ulmer Moll from the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland, recently confirmed the existence of two other planets TOI that were observed by TESS.
They report that transit signals were identified in the light curves of two stars known as TOI-5152 and TOI-5153. The planetary nature of these signals was confirmed by follow-up observations.
“Exploration photometry was combined with the TESS space mission, and follow-up observations were made from Earth using the NGTS photometric facility and the CORALIE, FEROS, CHIRON, HARPS and TRES high-resolution spectrometers,” the scientists wrote in the paper, published in the journal arXiv.
The radius of TOI-5152 b is regarding 1.07 the radius of Jupiter, which is regarding three times larger than that of Jupiter. It orbits its host star every 54.19 days, at a distance of 0.31 astronomical units from it.
The planet’s equilibrium temperature has been measured to be 688 K, and the host TOI-5152 is a G1-type star nearly twice as large as the Sun, located regarding 1,200 light-years from Earth. Its age is estimated between 1.4 and 6.8 billion years.
TOI-5153 b has a mass of 3.26 that of Jupiter, and its radius has been estimated to be 1.06 that of Jupiter. The orbital period of this exoplanet has been measured at 20.33 days and the distance to the host is approximately 0.16 AU.
According to astronomers, the equilibrium temperature of TOI-5153 b is at 906 K, and the host star is of spectral type F8. It is regarding 40% older than the Sun and is assumed to be 5.4 billion years old. The distance to this planetary system is regarding 1270 light years.
Therefore, TOI-5152 b and TOI-5153 b are warm and massive alien worlds the mass of Jupiter. The astronomers noted that both are rich in minerals and that their content of heavy elements corresponds to the relationship of the mineral mass of gas giants.
Given that the two planets orbit moderately bright stars, the paper’s authors added that they are ideal targets for additional observations.
“Both warm Jupiters orbit moderately bright host stars, making these objects valuable targets for follow-up studies of the planet’s atmosphere and measurement of the system’s rotation angle,” the researchers concluded.
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