NASA releases catalog of 126 exotic exoplanets, opening space for new discoveries

An international team of astronomers recently announced a new catalog of 20 confirmed exoplanets and six new candidates. The compilation was put together by the WM Keck Observatory in Maunakea, Hawaii, in collaboration with NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Tracking Satellite (TESS).

Call TESS-Keck Survey Bulk CatalogThe database will serve as a study resource for the newest extrasolar worlds discovered by TESS. In a highly elliptical orbit relative to Earth, the probe looks for transiting exoplanets, i.e. those that pass “in front” of their stars, causing a small decrease in their brightness.

The current research stands out because “relatively few of the previously known exoplanets have measurements of both mass and radius,” according to Stephen Kane, the study’s principal investigator. These combined measurements can show what these spatial objects are made of and even how they are formedsays the astronomer.

What does NASA’s new exoplanet catalog look like?

Considered the largest homogeneous analysis of planets identified by TESS published to date. The latest edition of the TESS-Keck Survey offers more than 9,200 radial velocity observations. The technique fundamental to determining the mass of exoplanets is based on the Doppler effect, a slight movement of the star relative to the observer as it orbits a planet.

One of the new worlds detected in this way, called TOI-1386b and located 479 light-years away, attracted the attention of astronomers because its mass and width are between those of Saturn and Neptune.

This placed it in a very rare category, the sub-Saturn category. Very close to its parent star, TOI-1386b orbits the equivalent of only 26 Earth days.

Its recently discovered neighbor, TOI-1386c, is nearly the width of Jupiter but only 30% its mass and is classified as a “puffy” gas giant. A little further, unpublished TOI-437 is equally rare One of the few known sub-Neptunes. It is half the size of the Blue Planet and more than ten times the mass of Earth.

How important is the discovery of new exoplanets?

One of the most intriguing finds of the TESS-Keck Survey was the planetary system called TOI-1798. This is the first planetary constellation to host an inner super-Earth planet with an ultrashort orbital period (USP), in this case approximately eight days. USPs are known to orbit their star in less time than Mercury orbits the Sun (88 days).

In addition to the discovery of exotic worlds, research Some planets orbiting subgiant stars that are future versions of our Sun. The results will allow us to predict the fate of our planet when our star swells and possibly swallows us.

So what do you think of NASA’s new exoplanet catalogue? You can find these other astronomical works here on TecMundo. Be careful and see you next time!