An international team of astronomers has reported the discovery of two exoplanets orbiting a nearby star known as HD 101581. The newly discovered worlds are slightly smaller and much hotter than our Earth.
The discovery was made while analyzing data collected by the TESS telescope. Since 2018, it has been investigating about 200 thousand of the brightest stars near the Sun to search for transiting exoplanets. In that time, TESS has recorded 589 confirmed worlds. Over 7,300 more still have candidate status.
Now two more worlds have joined the list. They orbit around the star HD 101581, which is 42 light-years away from the Sun. It is an orange dwarf with a radius of about 0.63 solar and a mass of about 0.74 solar. The age of the star is estimated at 7 billion years.
The planet closer to the star, designated HD 101581 b, has a radius of approximately 0.956 Earth radii and its mass was calculated to be not larger than 3.6 Earth masses. It orbits at a distance of about 0.046 AU (6.9 million km) from the luminary, and its equilibrium surface temperature is estimated to be 834 K.
The second exoplanet, designated HD 101581 c, is almost identical in size to Earth (0.99 Earth radius), and its upper mass limit is set at 4.2 Earth radii. It orbits at a distance of 0.057 AU (8.5 million km) from its parent star, and its equilibrium temperature was calculated to be at a level of 747 K.
According to the researchers, they also identified a signal that probably comes from a third exoplanet. It has a radius of about 0.98 Earth radii, a maximum mass of 3.6 Earth masses, and an orbital period of about 7.87 days. However, more observations are needed to confirm the existence of this body.
Earlier we reported on how astronomers discovered an exoplanet’s huge tail.
Provided by Phys.org
