(ORDO NEWS) — Using the NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), an international team of astronomers has discovered a new exoplanet called TOI-2196 b. Scientists believe that it is a hot sub-Neptune.
TESS is conducting a study of about 200,000 of the brightest nearby stars in order to search for transiting exoplanets. It has identified more than 5,800 candidate exoplanets (TESS Objects of Interest, or TOI), 233 of which have been confirmed so far.
Now, a team of astronomers led by Karina M. Persson from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden has confirmed another TOI.
The scientists reported that a transit signal was identified in the light curve of the G-type star TOI-2196. The planetary nature of this signal was confirmed by radial velocity (RV) measurements using the High Accuracy Radial Speed Planet Searcher (HARPS) spectrograph at the 3.6-meter telescope of the European Southern Observatory in Chile.
Observations have shown that TOI-2196 b is about 3.5 times the size of Earth and 26 times more massive than our planet. This gives a bulk density of approximately 3.31 g/cm3.
The planet has a relatively short orbital period of about 1.2 days and a high equilibrium temperature of about 1860 K.
Experts have concluded that TOI-2196 b is a hot sub-Neptune and belongs to the so-called “hot Neptune desert”.
The results show that while the mass loss of TOI-2196 b at a young age may have been significant, the planet has not changed in terms of its character. Scientists suggest that it formed as a small, volatile-rich planet, and remains so to this day.
The ancestral star TOI-2196 (another designation TIC 372172128) is about the size and mass of the Sun, according to the study. Its effective temperature is 5634 K, and its age is estimated at 4.5 billion years.
Astronomers speculate that another object may be orbiting the star. It can be a giant planet with warm or cold gas, a brown dwarf, or a satellite with a very low mass. Long-term observations are needed to test this hypothesis.
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