Newfound super-Earth alien planet whips around its star every 0.67 days

[Judi Lynn]

By Mike Wall 12 hours ago

Say hello to the extreme 'super-Earth' TOI-1685 b.



NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite is searching for planets outside our solar system, including those that could support life. The mission finds exoplanets that periodically block part of the light from their host stars — events called transits. (Image credit: NASA/GSFC)

We keep getting reminders that the Milky Way's planetary diversity dwarfs what we see in our own solar system.

The newfound exoplanet TOI-1685 b is yet another case in point. Astronomers found it circling a dim red dwarf star about 122 light-years from Earth. "Circling" is too ordinary a world for TOI-1685 b's motion, however; the alien world whips around its parent star once every 0.67 Earth days.

Red dwarfs, also known as M dwarfs, are much smaller and dimmer than Earth's sun, but TOI-1685 b's extreme proximity to its host star, called TOI-1685, makes it a very toasty world nonetheless. The discovery team estimates its surface temperature to be around 1,465 degrees Fahrenheit (796 degrees Celsius).

The researchers, led by Paz Bluhm of Heidelberg University in Germany, first spotted TOI-1685 b in observations made by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). As its name suggests, TESS looks for transits, the tiny brightness dips caused by planets crossing their host stars' faces from the Earth-orbiting spacecraft's perspective.

More:
https://www.space.com/super-earth-alien-planet-toi-1685b?utm_source=notification

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