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Image credit: Outer Places, adapted from NASA photo
Using data from NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, a graduate student and an international team of researchers discovered an exoplanet twice as large as our host star, ten times more than Mercury. Named Wolf503b, we still do not know much about the planet, but there is enough for astronomers to be excited and ready to give it their full attention.
"The discovery and confirmation of this new exoplanet have been very fast, thanks to the collaboration of my advisor, Björn Benneke, and myself," said Merrin Peterson, author and master's student at the Institute's research from the University of Montreal. on the exoplanets. "In May, I just started my graduate studies when the latest version of Kepler K2 data came in. We were able to quickly analyze the new data and find many interesting candidate exoplanets, Wolf 503b was one of them." The planet was detected using the proven method of observing the dimples in the light as it passed between Kepler and its host star. Once the host star has been identified as an orange dwarf on the basis of its spectrum NASA's infrared telescope installation), Wolf503b has been confirmed using high resolution images.
Thousands of exoplanets have been confirmed so far. Now that NASA's TESS is on the market, there will likely be thousands more in the near future, but the size and proximity of Wolf503b make it more appealing than many on the market. growing list of NASA. "Wolf 503b is one of the only planets to have a radius close to the gap that has a star bright enough to be studied in more detail, which will limit its true nature," said Björn Benneke, a professor at the University. from Montreal. "It provides a key opportunity to better understand the origin of this gap as well as the nature of the intriguing populations of" super-lands "and" sub-neptunes "as a whole."
Informed assumptions can be made about the mass, composition, and chemical composition of the Wolf503b atmosphere based on what scientists already know, but it's the next steps in the research that are of interest to most Peterson and the team. support or refute their assumptions. "By studying the nature of Wolf 503b, we will understand more about the structure of planets near the range of radius and more generally about the diversity of exoplanets present in our galaxy," said Peterson. "I look forward to learning more about it."
Cover image Credit: Outer Places, adapted from NASA photo
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