An international team of astronomers has reported the discovery of a new exoplanet that is part of a binary star system. It represents a dense sub-Saturn.

The discovery was made while analyzing data collected by the TESS telescope. It managed to detect regular fluctuations in the brightness of the star TOI-6038 A, which is part of a binary system. It is located 578 light-years away from Earth and is an F-type star. Its companion is an orange dwarf whose orbit passes at a distance of 3,217 a. e. (that’s 107 more than the distance between the Sun and Neptune). The system is estimated to be 3.65 billion years old.
Subsequent checks confirmed that the brightness variations of TOI-6038 A are indeed caused by transits of the exoplanet orbiting around it. Its radius is 6.4 times that of Earth, and its mass is estimated at 78.5 Earth-like. This gives an average density of 1.62 g/cm3. Astronomers have classified the exoplanet as a dense sub-Saturn.
The exoplanet’s orbit passes at a distance of 0.069 a. e. (10.3 million km) from its star. Its orbital period is 5.83 days and its equilibrium temperature is estimated at 1166 °C.
Based on modeling of the internal structure, astronomers suggest that the exoplanet’s core consists mostly of dense materials such as rock and iron, which account for about 74% of its total mass. A modest hydrogen-helium envelope makes up the rest of the mass, suggesting a relatively thin atmosphere. It is possible that the bulk of it was lost to stellar radiation over the billions of years of the system’s existence.
The resulting properties place the newly discovered exoplanet at the edge of the exo-Neptune desert. This is the name given to the region near stars where bodies with physical characteristics comparable to Neptune are practically non-existent. Astronomers attribute this to the fact that they lose their gas envelope rather quickly under the influence of the powerful stellar wind.
Earlier we reported on how the James Webb telescope peered into the atmosphere of a hot sub-Neptune.
According to Phys.org