It is rare for New Year's Day to come around once every 47.5 hours on the exoplanet TOI 674b.
Despite years of hunting, few middle-sized gas giants have ever been seen with a short, short, short, short, short, short, short, short, short, short, short, short, short, short, short, short, short, short, short, short, short
It is a mystery as to why this is the case. The TOI 270b is one of the super-Earth sized balls of rock that are seen whipping around their star quick time. There are hot Jupiters that pop up regularly.
Where are the hot Neptunes? Something about their size, composition, and position in their solar system makes them less likely to get too personal with a nearby star. They don't stick around long enough to brag about it.
Astronomers have noticed that there are hints of water floating in the atmosphere of this recently discovered middle-range giant, which could help explain why it's so special.
It's exciting to see the signature of water on other planets and to know how unique our own planet might be.
Having a breakdown of the kinds of gases in an exoplanet's atmosphere is like having the details of its birth certificate, giving planetary scientists a clearer understanding of how and where it formed in its solar system.
If a planet forms beyond a point where the star's radiation can easily sublimate ice into gas, it will have a better chance of holding onto water.
The next step will be to collect more data on TOI 674b's atmosphere, as well as other features.
The planet was discovered using data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. It's been interesting enough for researchers to use the Hubble Space Telescope to look at the planet's secrets. The team looked at the old data from the space telescope.
The M-class red dwarf star is half the mass of our own Sun, meaning there is enough light to see by, but not so much the planet gets lost in the glare.
Current generation spectrographs have a much easier time analyzing the light glinting through its clouds because of the close proximity to the parent star, the gentle wash of radiation, and the fact that they are close to us.
The recently launched James Webb Space Telescope will give us an unprecedented view of distant stars and their planets, and it's perfectly suited to studying exoplanets.
Knowing how TOI 674b fell into such a hot embrace with its star will help us fill in the bigger picture of how other solar systems evolve, and whether our own is boringly normal or a unique gem in an ocean of chaos.
The preprint is available on arXiv.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
