Using the TESS satellite from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), an international team of astronomers has discovered two “super-Earths” orbiting nearby red dwarf stars in our solar neighborhood.
According to a report on arXiv, the team led by PhD researcher Mourad Ghachoui from the University of Liège (Belgium) has confirmed the existence of two “super-Earths” thanks to TESS.
Red dwarf star TOI 6002 from the Stellar Catalog. (Image: STELLARCATALOG).
TESS is conducting a survey of approximately 200,000 of the brightest stars near the Sun with the goal of searching for transiting exoplanets. To date, NASA’s mission has identified over 7,200 candidate exoplanets, of which 543 have been confirmed as planets.
Ghachoui’s team detected signals indicating the presence of planets transiting two M-type red dwarfs named TOI-6002 and TOI-5713.
TOI 6002 is located about 105 light-years from the Solar System and has a mass equal to 24% of the Sun. In contrast, TOI 5713 is approximately 134 light-years away and has a mass equal to 27% of the Sun. Both of these M-type red dwarfs host at least one planet.
The research results indicate that the planet orbiting TOI 6002, designated TOI-6002 b, has a radius 1.65 times that of Earth and a mass nearly four times greater. This planet takes 10.9 days to complete its orbit around its host star.
Meanwhile, the planet TOI-5713 b, orbiting TOI 5713, is about 77% larger than Earth, with an estimated mass 4.3 times that of our planet. TOI-5713 b completes its orbit in 10.44 days.
The authors of the report categorize the newly discovered planets as “super-Earths.” This classification includes planets larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune.
They have not yet determined the exact composition of the two planets, suggesting they could be rocky worlds or water worlds.
The team of astronomers concludes that both TOI-6002 b and TOI-5713 b are intriguing targets for future research aimed at understanding the evolution of planets that may develop from Venus-like forms but still possess the potential to sustain life.
