(NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KRBwyle) https://go.nasa.gov/3BRwtkh)
Canadian astronomers using the TESS and Spitzer space telescopes have discovered a new Earth-like exoplanet around a nearby cold red dwarf.
The planet has no day and night, and the inner heating should lead to strong volcanic activity.
It's so beautiful it looks like my origin planet: Zerus.
Earth-like exoplanets orbiting red dwarfs are interesting targets for scientists looking for rocky, temperate exoplanets with atmospheres.
Searches and studies of the atmospheres of such bodies are carried out during their transits across the disk of their star.
During this moment, telescopes register the light of the star passing through the gaseous shell of the planet, and there will be absorption lines created by various elements in the spectrum.
VOLCANIC EXOPLANET
Now a team of astronomers of the University of Montreal announced the discovery of an Earth-like exoplanet around the cool dwarf LP 791-18.
The team led by Merrin S. Peterson found it while examining observations of the star from the TESS and Spitzer space telescopes.
LP 791-18 is an M6-type red dwarf with a radius of 0.182 solar radii and lies 86.5 light-years from the Sun.
Previously, two exoplanets were discovered around the star:
- Hot super-Earth LP 791-18b (which makes one orbit in 0.94 days)
- sub-Neptune LP 791-18c (which makes one orbit in 4.99 days)
The newly discovered exoplanet LP 791-18d has a radius of 1.03 Earth radii, a mass of 0.9 Earth masses, and its equilibrium temperature is 305-395 Kelvin.
The orbital period of the exoplanet around the red dwarf is 2.753 days, it is in tidal capture and on one part of it is eternal day, and on the other - at night.
It is assumed that LP 791-18d is unlikely to have a hydrogen atmosphere, and tidal forces from the star cause heating of the planet's interior and generate strong volcanic activity.
Future observations should help determine the evolutionary path of LP 791-18d.
The exoplanet could have an analogue of the greenhouse atmosphere of Venus, it could lose all volatiles, or water vapor on its night side could fall into cold traps and condense.
Scientists also specified the parameters of the exoplanet LP 791-18c, which is part of the system: it has a mass of 7.1 Earth masses and a radius of 2.44 Earth radii.
Sources:
- Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05934-8
- NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/nasa-s-spitzer-tess-find-potentially-volcano-covered-earth-size-world
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#science #space #exoplanet #volcanic #learnwithsteem #steemexclusive #nftmc
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