They ran several tests to make sure the signal was not from a "false positive" source such as a foreground or background eclipsing binary star.Īfter confirming the object was indeed an ultra-short-period planet, they then observed the planet's star more closely, using the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS), an instrument installed on the European Southern Observatory's telescope in Chile.įrom these measurements, they determined the planet to be among the lightest planets discovered to date, with a radius that is 72 percent, and a mass that is 55 percent, that of Earth's. Scientists at MIT and elsewhere analyzed the data, and detected a transiting object with an ultra-short, eight-hour orbit.
#OXYGEN NOT INCLUDED SHINE BUG PATCH#
Scientists look through TESS data for transits, or periodic dips in starlight that indicate a planet is crossing and briefly blocking a star's light.įor about a month in 2019, TESS recorded a patch of the southern sky that included the star GJ 376. TESS monitors the sky for changes in brightness of the nearest stars. The new planet was discovered by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), an MIT-led mission, of which Ricker is principal investigator. The study was led by researchers from the Institute of Planetary Research at the German Aerospace Center, in collaboration with an international group of researchers, including MIT co-authors Ricker, Roland Vanderspek, and Sara Seager. The team's results appear in the journal Science. It's like there's a sign saying, 'Look here for extra planets!'" "Since this star is so close by, and so bright, we have a good chance of seeing other planets in this system. "For this class of star, the habitable zone would be somewhere between a two- to three-week orbit," says team member George Ricker, senior research scientist in MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. The discovery of GJ 367 b around such a star points to the possibility for more planets in this system, which could help scientists understand the origins of GJ 376 b and other ultra-short-period planets. Its star is a red dwarf, or M dwarf - a type of star that typically hosts multiple planets. Under such extreme temperatures, any substantial atmosphere would have long vaporized away, along with any signs of life, at least as we know it.īut there is a chance that the planet has habitable partners. As a result, the planet's dayside boils at up to 1,500 degrees Celsius. For instance, the team determined that GJ 376 b is a rocky planet and likely contains a solid core of iron and nickel, similar to Mercury's interior.ĭue to its extreme proximity to its star, the astronomers estimate GJ 376 b is blasted with 500 times more radiation than what the Earth receives from the sun. Orbiting a nearby star that is 31 light years from our own sun, GJ 367 b is close enough that researchers could pin down properties of the planet that were not possible with previously detected USPs. The planet is about the size of Mars, and half as massive as the Earth, making it one of the lightest planets discovered to date. The planet is named GJ 367 b, and it orbits its star in just eight hours. Now, astronomers have discovered an ultra-short-period planet (USP) that is also super light.
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