(ORDO NEWS) — NASA astronomers using the TESS satellite have discovered an unusual planet, designating it TOI-2019b. One year on this giant, incandescent planet lasts only 16 hours.
The recently discovered gas giant TOI-2019b has the shortest orbit of this type of planet known. For example, it takes Jupiter 12 years to complete one revolution around the Sun.
Astronomers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology hope their discovery will help figure out how hot this type of exoplanet gets. Usually the surface temperature on them is more than 3000 degrees Celsius.
Planet TOI-2109b lies 855 light-years from Earth and was discovered using NASA’s TESS satellite, which searches for exoplanets.
“From the very beginning of exoplanetary science, hot Jupiter’s have been viewed as something of a mystery,” said study co-author Avid Sparer.
Analyzing measurements at various optical and infrared wavelengths, the researchers found that TOI-2109b is about 5 times more massive than Jupiter, 35% larger, and is only 2.4 million kilometers from its parent star. For example, the first planet from the Sun, Mercury, is located at a distance of about 57.9 million kilometers from it.
Now astronomers are going to connect the James Webb Space Telescope to the study, which will help to study the strange exoplanet in more detail. The telescope is scheduled to launch on December 22, 2021.
“Jupiter’s like TOI-2109b are the most extreme subclass of exoplanets,” commented lead author Yang Wong. “In a year or two, if we’re lucky, we might be able to detect the planet approaching its star.”
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