TESS Telescope found an earth-like exoplanet in the habitable zone of a red dwarf

(NASA/JPL-Caltech/NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center https://go.nasa.gov/3QJ4jyT)

Astronomers have discovered the fourth exoplanet in the nearby red dwarf system TOI-700, which turned out to be Earth-like and falls into the habitable zone.

At the same time, TOI-700e is likely to be in tidal lock, which means that it will always be day on one side and night on the other.

One of the main areas in the search of exoplanets is understanding how unique the solar system is.

Scientists now know that stelar systems with multiple exoplanets are common and often have a flat, coplanar orbital architecture similar to our solar system.

However, it is not clear how often Earth-like planets can be found in those systems, especially those that fall into the habitable zone, where liquid water can exist on their surface.

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THE DISCOVERY
Now, a team of astronomers from NASA JPL announced the discovery of a new exoplanet located in the habitable zone of the star TOI-700.

The astronomers led by Emily A. Gilbert discovered the exoplanet by the transit method using the TESS space telescope and the Campo Catino ground-based observatory.

TOI-700 is an inactive red dwarf of spectral type M2.5 with a mass of 0.419 solar masses and a radius of 0.417 solar radii.

The system is located at a distance of about 100 light-years from the Sun in the constellation Dorado and has three exoplanets

The recently discovered is Earth-like and is located in the habitable zone.

The newly discovered planet TOI-700e has a radius of 0.95 Earth radii and makes one revolution around the star in 27.8 days.

The planet is considered rocky and has not been previously discovered due to its small size.

(NASA Goddard / YouTube)

The flux of radiation from a red dwarf reaching the planet is 1.27 of the flux of radiation that the Earth receives from the Sun.

Thus, TOI-700e is between Earth and Venus in terms of insolation and falls into the optimistic habitable zone.

This means that liquid water could exist on its surface for a long time, but there is no guarantee that it is available now.

Also, the exoplanet is in tidal lock, which means that it will always be day on one side and night on the other.

Sources:

• arXiv.org: https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.03617
• Space.com: https://www.space.com/tess-second-earth-size-habitable-zone-exoplanet
• NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-tess-discovers-planetary-system-s-second-earth-size-world/

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#science #space #exoplanets #nasa #tess #news #nftmc