“It’s a useful planet because it could resemble early Earth.”
HD 63433d, a new Earth-sized planet discovered by astronomers, orbits a young sun-like star in a close orbit, offering a rare glimpse into the early stages of planetary evolution. It has become.
A team of astronomers has discovered a young planet that is closer than any Earth-sized world known to date. Our planet is a very hot world and its proximity to stars like our planet and the Sun provides a unique opportunity to study how planets evolve.
This new planet was described in a new study published recently. astronomical journal.Melinda Soares Furtado NASA Benjamin Capistrant, a Hubble Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who will begin work as an astronomy professor there in the fall, recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is currently a graduate student. University of Floridaco-led the study with co-authors from around the world.
“It’s a useful planet because it could resemble early Earth,” Soares Furtado said.
Here’s what scientists know about Earth.
- This planet is known as HD 63433d and is the third planet discovered in orbit around a star called HD 63433.
- HD 63433d is so close to its star that it completes a full orbit every 4.2 days.
- “Even if it’s orbiting very closely, we can use the tracking data to find evidence of outgassing and atmospheric loss, which could be important constraints on how the terrestrial world evolves. “You can look for it,” Soares Furtado said. “But the similarities end there – and end dramatically”
- Based on its orbit, astronomers are relatively certain that HD 63433d is tidally locked. This means that one side is always facing that star.
- That side can reach a brutal 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit Lava may flow, but the other side is forever dark.
What you need to know about this planetary star:
- HD 63433 is about the same size and star type as our Sun, but it is less than one-tenth the age of our Sun (about 400 million years old).
- The star is about 73 light-years from our Sun and is part of a group of stars that move together that make up the constellation Ursa Major, which includes the Big Dipper.
- “Dark night in Madison,” says Soares Furtado. [HD 63433] Look through good binoculars. ”
How scientists discovered the planet:
- The study’s authors collaborate on a planetary exploration project called THYME. In 2020, they used data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey satellite to identify two small planets.NeptuneA planet the size of which orbits HD 63433.
- since then, Tess Observing the star four more times, researchers collected enough data to detect HD 63433d as it crossed between the star and the satellite.
What’s next?
- The researchers included study co-authors graduate student Andrew C. Nain, undergraduate student Alyssa Jankowski, and UC Madison astronomy professor Juliette Becker. We believe there is much we can learn from HD 63433d.
- This planet is in a unique location that allows for further study. Its vibrant young stars can be seen from both the northern and southern hemispheres, and systems like the South African Large Telescope and his WIYN Observatory in Arizona (both of which his UW-Madison helped design and build) The number of devices that can be trained on is increasing. .
- And because this star is an order of magnitude closer than many things Soares-Furtado has studied before, he has developed new ways to study gas leaking from the planet’s interior and measure the planet’s magnetic field. There may be an opportunity to do so.
“This is our solar backyard, and that’s very exciting,” says Soares Furtado. “What kind of information can a star so close and with such a crowded star system around it give us? Looking for planets among perhaps 100 similar stars in this young group? But how can that help?”
Reference: “TESS Hunt for Young and Maturing Exoplanets (THYME)” 11. “Earth-sized planets orbiting near sun-like hosts in the 400 million Ursa Majoris mobile group” Benjamin K. Capistrant, Melinda Soares Furtado, Andrew Vanderburgh, Alyssa Jankowski, Andrew W. Mann, Gabriel Ross, Gregor Surdock, Natalie R. Hinkel, Juliette Becker, Christian Mariano, Mary Ann Limbach, Alexander – P. Stephens, Andrew C. Nine, Benjamin M. Tofflemire, Adam L. Krause, Stephen Giacalone, Joshua N. Wynn, Alison Vierilla, Luke G. Bouma, David R. Ciardi, Karen A. Collins, Giovanni Coborn, Zoe L. de Beers, Chelsea X. Huang, John M. Jenkins, Laura Kreidberg, David W. Latham, Samuel N. Quinn, Sarah Seager, Avi Sporer, Joseph D. Twicken, Bill Waller, Roland K. Vanderspeck, Ricardo Yarza, Carl Ziegler, January 10, 2024; astronomical journal.
DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/ad1039
This research was supported in part by grants from NASA (HST-HF2-51493.001-A, 21-ASTRO21-0068, XRP 80NSSC21K0393) and the National Science Foundation (AST-2143763, PHY-2210452, 1745302) .