(ORDO NEWS) — An international team of astronomers has discovered a previously unknown planet belonging to the class of hot Jupiters. This alien world resembles Jupiter in characteristics and orbits a G-class dwarf star.
According to Phys.org, the discovered exoplanet has been designated TOI-5542 b. It is the size of Jupiter, but its mass is about 30 percent greater than the mass of the indicated gas giant. The alien world was discovered using data received by the TESS spacecraft.
It is designed to search for exoplanets using the so-called transit method. This device captures the periodic overlap of starlight, which may be associated with the movement of the planets.
Then the received information is checked with the help of other telescopes. The method proved to be effective.
So far, TESS has discovered about 6,000 exoplanet candidates, of which the existence of 256 objects has already been confirmed.
Now the planet TOI-5542 b has joined the list. Its existence has been confirmed by a team of astronomers led by Nolan Greaves of the University of Geneva in Switzerland. The planet orbits a low-metal G-class star known as TOI-5542.
The new world has a radius of about 1.01 that of Jupiter, but its mass is 1.32 times that of Jupiter. This planet orbits its parent star in 75.12 days and is at a distance of 0.33 astronomical units from it. One astronomical unit is the average distance from the Earth to the Sun.
Astronomers have classified the new planet as a hot Jupiter because the equilibrium temperature on its surface is about 167 degrees Celsius. The star TOI-5542, around which the planet revolves, has a radius of about 1.06 that of the Sun.
It is about 11 percent lighter than our Sun. The star TOI-5542 is known to be nearly 11 billion years old. Therefore, researchers believe that the discovered exoplanet is one of the oldest hot Jupiters on record.
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