The “Exoplanet Hunter” TESS from NASA has discovered two extraordinary worlds in the constellation Draco, one of which is the longest confirmed orbiting exoplanet ever found.
According to SciTech Daily, this surprising discovery comes from a red dwarf star named TOI-4600, located approximately 815 light-years from Earth.
A scientific team from NASA, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of New Mexico analyzed detailed data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a NASA spacecraft equipped with an observatory designed to hunt for worlds beyond our solar system.
Red dwarf star TOI-4600 and the two “gas giants” it hosts – (Graphic: Tedi Vick).
Surrounding this small, “cooler” star compared to our Sun, they were astonished to witness something akin to a “world of giants,” vastly larger than the gas giant Jupiter, which has a radius 11 times that of Earth and a mass 318 times greater.
The first member of the “world of giants” around TOI-4600 is TOI-4600b, which has a radius 6.8 times larger than that of Jupiter and an orbital period around its parent star of 83 days.
The outer planet is TOI-4600c, with a radius over 9.4 times that of Jupiter and an astonishing orbital period of 483 days. This is indeed the exoplanet with the longest known orbit.
Preliminary data suggest that these planets may belong to the gas giant category—similar to Jupiter—but their internal composition may be a mix of gas and ice.
They seem to bridge the gap between “hot Jupiters” and “original Jupiters” in our solar system, with the latter being a cold giant. This marks the first time TESS has found a star system where both hot and cold Jupiters coexist.
The outer planet has a super-cold temperature of minus 82 degrees Celsius, while the inner planet is more temperate at 74 degrees Celsius.
Following the results recently published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, the authors stated they will seek to delve deeper into the mysterious space surrounding TOI-4600.
Dr. Ismael Mirele from the University of New Mexico, a co-author, revealed that they suspect the two giant worlds are hiding some smaller planets in between or around them.
