Using satellite data from NASA’s Extrasolar Planet Satellite and several ground-based installations, astronomers have discovered a sub-Neptune extrasolar planet orbiting the dwarf star TOI-2257. But the interesting thing about this planet is that, interestingly, its orbit is very elliptical, which indicates the existence of a giant outer gas planet in the TOI-2257 system.
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According to official definitions, a red dwarf star is a small, cold, red star that falls into the M or K category, and is often referred to as a star with a mass less than half the mass of the Sun and a surface temperature of less than 3,500 degrees Kelvin. Be. Red dwarfs, also called M dwarf stars, are more than 50 times darker than the Sun and only have 10 to 20 percent of their mass. The abundance of red dwarfs has led scientists to speculate that they may be the best place to discover possible alien life. Using computer models of planetary formation, scientists have found that red dwarfs are likely to develop terrestrial worlds that are warm enough to hold liquid water.
Although space exploration is typically led by NASA’s Kepler and K2 space missions, TESS has made an increasing contribution to recognizing M dwarf planets by discovering 28 of the 185 planets. Of these, only 17 planets orbit in long-term orbits (more than 15 days). The M3 TOI-2257 dwarf is located 188.5 light-years away in the constellation Giraffe. This star, also known by various scientific letters, is only 31% the size of the Sun and at least one planet passes through it.
But the new planet discovered by TESS, called TOI-2267b, has an estimated orbital period of 35.19 days. The planet is 2.2 times larger than Earth and is in the class of extrasolar planets below Neptune. “Long periods of time indicate that the planet is in a very strange orbit, making it the most unusual planet known to revolve around a dwarf star M,” say astronomers. “The TOI-2257b orbits at a distance around the host star that makes it very likely that liquid water is present, so there may be favorable conditions for life to form there,” they added.
However, the radius TOI-2257b indicates that the planet is almost gaseous and its high atmospheric pressure is not suitable for life. “We found that TOI-2257b does not have a circular or concentric orbit,” said Dr. Nicole Sanchez, an astronomer at the University of Bern and director of the study. “In terms of habitability, this is bad news, because the average temperature of the planet varies from minus 80 degrees Celsius to about 100 degrees Celsius (from minus 112 to 212 degrees Fahrenheit), depending on where the planet is in its orbit.”
Such an amazing orbit is very strange for these types of planets, and Dr. Shanche explains that the possible answer to this amazing orbit is that giant planets are probably hidden outside the system, which disrupts the TOI 2257b orbit. The results of the discovery of the planet TOI-2257b have been published in an article in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
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