Using data collected by the TESS Space Telescope, an international team of researchers has discovered a previously unknown gas giant. The discovery is of interest due to the large age of the exoplanet.
The newly found exoplanet was designated TOI-5542 b. It orbits a yellow dwarf which mass is 0.89 solar and which radius is 1.06 of the radius of our Sun. The luminary is characterized by low metallicity, which indicates that it was formed in an era when our universe was poor in heavy elements. According to researchers, the age of the star is 10.8 billion years.
As for the newly found exoplanet, it was classified as a warm Jupiter. With similar dimensions to Jupiter, its mass exceeds the mass of the largest planet in the Solar System by 30%. The orbital period of TOI-5542 b is 75 days, its orbit passes at a distance of 0.33 au from the parent star. According to calculations, the equilibrium temperature of the exoplanet is 170 ℃.
TOI-5542 b is currently one of the oldest gas giants known to astronomers. The researchers plan to continue studying it to learn more about the evolution of such worlds. They will also try to answer the question about the origin of TOI-5542 b and determine whether it was formed initially in the current orbit, or migrated to it later.
Recall that TESS recently discovered a large planet orbiting a small star.
According to https://phys.org
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