An international team of researchers led by Charles Cadieux, a PhD student at the Université de Montréal and member of the Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx), has announced the discovery of TOI 1452 b, an exoplanet around a small star.
At a distance from its star, the exoplanet is not too hot or cold for liquid water to exist on its surface. Astronomers think it could be a planet covered in water like Jupiter's and Saturn's moons.
Cadieux and his team describe the nature and characteristics of this unique exoplanet in an article published today.
"I'm very proud of this discovery because it shows the high caliber of our researchers and instruments," said René Doyon, Professor and Director of iREx and of the O MM. Thanks to the OMM, a special instrument designed in our labs, and an innovative analytic method developed by our research team, we were able to detect this one-of-a-kind exoplanet.
It was NASA's space telescope TESS that put the researchers on the trail of this exoplanet. Astronomers predicted a planet about 70% larger than Earth based on the TESS signal.
Charles Cadieux is an astronomer who does follow up observations of candidates identified by TESS in order to confirm their planet types and characteristics. Professor David Lafrenire and his student Franois-René Lachapelle helped develop the camera that he uses.
The OMM played a crucial role in determining the nature of the signal. This wasn't a regular check. The signal detected by TESS was caused by an exoplanet circling TOI 1452, the largest of the two stars in the system.
Our Sun is larger than the host star TOI 1452, but they are both in the same system. The TESS telescope is able to see the stars as a single point of light because they are so small. The images show that the exoplanet is in close proximity to TOI 1452, which was confirmed by a Japanese team.
It's ingenuity at work.
The researchers used the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope to observe the system. It is possible to study low-mass stars such as TOI 1452 with the help of SPIRou. It took more than 50 hours to estimate the planet's mass, which is thought to be five times larger than Earth.
The data was analyzed by researchers tienne Artigau and Neil Cook. The method they developed was able to detect the planet in the data. According to Artigau, the LBL method allows us to clean the data obtained with SPIRou of many parasites and to reveal the weak signature of planets.
Two PhD students from the Université de Montréal are part of the team. The host star's composition was analyzed by Jahandar in order to constrain the planet's internal structure.
A world made of water.
The TOI 1452 b is a rocky planet that is very different from our own. Water makes up less than 1% of the planet's mass and it's sometimes called the Blue Planet.
Some planets may have more water than others. Astronomers have identified and determined the mass and radius of many exoplanets that are between Earth and Neptune. Some of these planets have a density that can only be explained if a large portion of their mass is made up of lighter materials. These worlds are called "ocean planets."
One of the best candidates for an ocean planet has been identified as TOI 1452 b. It's mass and radius suggest that it's not as dense as one would think for a planet made up of metal and rock.
They are specialists in exoplanet interior modeling. Their analysis of TOI 1452 b shows that water may make up as much as 30% of its mass, which is similar to the proportion of natural satellites in our Solar System.
It will be continued...
An exoplanet such as TOI 1452 b is a good candidate for further observation with a telescope. It's characteristics are similar to an ocean planet. Researchers can hope to study the atmosphere and test the hypothesis. It is located in a region of the sky where the telescope can see it all the time.
"Our observations with the telescope will allow us to better understand TOI 1452 b," said Doyon. We will book time on Webb to see this strange and wonderful world.
The article "TOI 1452 b: SPIRou and TESS reveal a super- Earth in a temperate transiting an M4 dwarf" was published in August 12 2022. The research team at the iREx includes Charles Cadieux, tienne Artigau, Neil Cook, Farbod Jahandar, and Thomas Vandal.
More information: Charles Cadieux et al, TOI-1452 b: SPIRou and TESS Reveal a Super-Earth in a Temperate Orbit Transiting an M4 Dwarf, The Astronomical Journal (2022). DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/ac7cea Journal information: Astronomical Journal
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