NASA's TESS Telescope Spots 2 'Missing Link' Exoplanets (and a Super Earth, Too!)
By Mike Wall 7 hours ago Science & Astronomy
Seventy-three light-years is nearby, in the cosmic scheme of things.
NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered three new worlds that are among the smallest, nearest exoplanets known to date. The planets orbit a star 73 light-years away and include a small, rocky super-Earth and two sub-Neptunes — planets about half the size of our own icy giant.(Image: © Scott Wiessinger/NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center)
NASA's newest planet hunter has bagged three more trophies, two of which may help scientists better understand how worlds form and evolve.
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has spotted three planets orbiting the red dwarf star TOI-270, which lies just 73 light-years from the sun, a new study reports.
All three worlds are relatively small. One is a rocky "super-Earth" not much bigger than our own planet, and the other two are "sub-Neptunes" about half the size of our solar system's other blue planet, researchers said.
The sub-Neptunes are particularly interesting, study team members said, because they may represent a missing link between rocky worlds such as Earth and ice giants like Neptune. Studying them could therefore help researchers understand if ice giants and terrestrial planets follow the same basic evolutionary path, or if they diverge in some significant way.
More:
https://www.space.com/nasa-spots-missing-link-exoplanets-super-earth.html?utm_source=notification