Two New Rocky Planets Discovered Close to the Solar System

TESS has hit paydirt before. Two new super-Earths have been found in the vicinity of a star. There are two rocky planets.

There is a star named HD 260655. A red dwarf is a bright M dwarf. Neither planet is likely to support life due to their high temperatures. Scientists think they are worth more observations.

A paper titled " The HD 260655 system: Two rocky worlds transiting a bright M dwarf at 10 PC" was published. The lead author is a professor at the University of Chicago. The paper will be published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, but you can find it online.

HD 260655b is close to the star with a period of almost three weeks. Its mass is 2.14 earth mass.

HD 260655c has a period of over six weeks. Its mass is 3.09 earth mass.

They are too hot to support a life. The temperatures of planet b and planet c are close to 400 and 552 degrees. The temperature estimates are dependent on the atmosphere on the planet.

The atmospheres of these planets make them interesting.

The atmospheres of exoplanets will be examined by the James Webb Space Telescope when it starts science operations. The results will show us how different rocky planets can be from one another.

It's too good to pass up the chance to study two planets in the same system.

There is a unique opportunity for characterization of multiplanetary systems.

They have formed in the same disk. The host star is so small that the super- Earths have more influence on it. It is easier to measure the planets' mass and densities.