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NASA has discovered three new planets, including a world never before seen in our own solar system, writes independent.co.uk.
The mysterious planets orbiting the TOI-270 seem to be a "missing link" and can be a great gift for explorers of the alien worlds. The three planets revolve around a star 73 light years from us. They are one of the closest exoplanets to us – and one of the smallest.
They were discovered by researchers using NASA's Exoplanet Research Satellite (TESS), launched into space in 2018. and have since explored the universe in search of stars and planets where life could exist.
The TOI-270 has a rocky "super land" slightly larger than our planet and two slightly larger gaseous planets. Thus, they can be considered as the "missing link" intervening between smaller rocky worlds such as our Earth or Mars and much larger gaseous planets such as Saturn and Jupiter.
Scientists hope to examine this solar system to understand why there are so few worlds of this size, as well as to discover the origin of the planets in our solar system.
"The TOI-270 will soon allow us to study the" missing link "between rocky Earth-like planets and miniature gaseous Neptune, as all these types are formed in the same system," says Maximilian Gunther of the Mbadachusetts Institute. of Technology.
In addition to the Earth-like exoplanet, two gaseous worlds, twice as big as ours, have been discovered.
One of them, the farthest from the star, lies in the temperature range allowing extraterrestrial life, but the atmosphere of this world will probably be so dense and dense that It will accumulate a lot of heat and its surface will seem too hot to live. .
Scientists hope to learn as much as possible about these relatively close worlds. Their star, the host of so unusual worlds, is not only close to our solar system, but also exceptionally bright, with no sunshine or storm that can sometimes disrupt observation.
"The TOI-270 is the real Disneyland of the science of exoplanets and one of the first systems discovered by TESS," says Gunther.
"It's an extraordinary laboratory for many reasons: it puts all the check boxes together."
Scientists say that there may be more planets not yet discovered in this solar system.
Although the planets are interesting in themselves, they also join a "resonant circuit," according to the researchers. This means that their orbits are spaced at regular intervals corresponding to integers, which means that they "resonate" with each other.
"The TOI-270 is aligned like beads on a wire," says Gunther. – This is a very interesting phenomenon because it allows to monitor their dynamic behavior. It is almost expected that if there are more planets, the other planet will also be at a distance relatively equal to an integer. "
We have also discovered more solar systems in which the planets are in a "resonant" relationship. In our solar system, Jupiter's moons are also in this interesting way.
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