First Habitable-Zone, Earth-Sized Exoplanet Discovered with Planet-Hunter TESS
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First Habitable-Zone, Earth-Sized Exoplanet Discovered With Planet-Hunter TESS:
TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, was launched in 2018 with the goal of discovering small planets around the Sun's nearest neighbors, stars bright enough to allow for follow-up characterizations of their planets' masses and atmospheres. [...] In a series of three papers that appeared together this month, astronomers report that one of these planets, TOI-700d, is Earth-sized and also located in its star's habitable zone; they also discuss its possible climate.
CfA astronomers Joseph Rodriguez, Laura Kreidberg, Karen Collins, Samuel Quinn, Dave Latham, Ryan Cloutier, Jennifer Winters, Jason Eastman, and David Charbonneau were on the teams that studied TOI-700d, one of three small planets orbiting one M dwarf star (its mass is 0.415 solar masses) located one hundred and two light-years from Earth. The TESS data analysis found the tentative sizes of the planets as being approximately Earth-sized, 1.04, 2.65 and 1.14 Earth-radii, respectively, and their orbital periods as 9.98, 16.05, and 37.42 days, respectively.
[...] The TESS team observed TOI-700 with IRAC in October of 2019 and January of 2020, acquiring clear detections of the planets with about twice the signal-to-noise of TESS, enough to give a 61% improvement in the planet's orbit and to significantly refine our knowledge of its other characteristics, refining the radius as above and finding the mass to be 2.1 Earth-masses. The results, especially when compared with other planets' properties, suggest that this planet may be rocky and likely to be "tidally locked" with one side of the planet always facing the star.
Journal References:
- Emily A. Gilbert, et. al., The First Habitable-zone Earth-sized Planet from TESS. I. Validation of the TOI-700 System - IOPscience, The Astronomical Journal (DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/aba4b2)
- Joseph E. Rodriguez, et. al., The First Habitable-zone Earth-sized Planet from TESS. II. Spitzer Confirms TOI-700 d - IOPscience, The Astronomical Journal (DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/aba4b3)
- Gabrielle Suissa, et. al., The First Habitable-zone Earth-sized Planet from TESS. III. Climate States and Characterization Prospects for TOI-700 d - IOPscience, The Astronomical Journal (DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/aba4b4)
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