A rare planet has been discovered hundreds of light years away, and it could be key to our understanding of planetary formations out there in the universe.
More than 5,300 exoplanets have been discovered, but only a few match the description of the newly recorded TOI-733b.
Found 245 light years away, TOI-733b is almost twice the size of Earth and orbits a sun slightly smaller than ours.
While there are many exoplanets, they are so small between one and a half times Earth’s diameter and twice the size that they are of great interest to scientists.
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The research was carried out by a team of astronomers led by Iskra Georgieva of Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. It was accepted for publication in Astronomy and astrophysics.
The team focused on TOI-733b after data was collected on the planet by NASA’s TESS telescope.
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The density of a planet indicates two things – whether it is completely covered in water, or has completely lost its atmosphere.
Evidence points to the idea that TOI-733b’s atmosphere is slowly thinning. This is due to the planet’s proximity to its star, which orbits it in just 4.9 days. If its atmosphere were to burn up, it could soon turn into a rocky planet.
Another possibility is that the planet has lost its hydrogen and helium, while retaining an atmosphere full of water vapor.
“The answer to the question of whether TOI-733b has a secondary atmosphere or an oceanic planet boils down to the difference between Neptune-like planets that have lost ∼10 percent H/He to leave their heavier volatile vapor atmospheres, and those that formed and remained intact.” relatively throughout its development.
“While it is beyond the scope of this paper, finding answers to these questions will have far-reaching implications for our understanding of exoplanets.”
The team continued to write: “All things considered, TOI-733 b appears to be an interesting planet and has the potential to be a small but important part of solving the larger mysteries of exoplanet science.
“With increasing depth of theoretical analysis and the promise of high-resolution follow-up by current and future facilities, we appear to be on the right track to finding answers to key questions regarding planet formation and evolution.”
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2023-05-01 11:38:24
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