ZURICH, Aug. 10 — An international team of astronomers has discovered two exoplanets orbiting their host stars, red dwarfs designated TOI-6002 and TOI-5713, located 105 and 134 light-years from the Sun, respectively, Phys.org reported Thursday.
The new objects, called TOI-6002b and TOI-5713b, have been classified as “super-Earths,” a name given to astronomical objects that are between 1 and 10 times more massive than our planet and are between 1 and 4 Earth radii in size.
The exoplanets were discovered by observations of the attenuation of their light curves as they orbited their parent stars, according to a study published Thursday on the arXiv pre-print service. The data was obtained by ground-based telescopes and NASA’s TESS space telescope.
Characteristics of the new exoplanets:
In the case of TOI-6002b, it is estimated to be four times larger than Earth and to have an orbital period of 10.9 days, making it closer to its parent star, at a distance of about 0.06 astronomical units (AU). Additionally, it has been determined to be roughly twice the size of our planet (1.65 Earth radii) and to have an equilibrium temperature of 47.95 degrees Celsius.
TOI-5713b, on the other hand, has a mass of 4.3 Earth masses and completes an orbit of its host star in 10.44 days, at a distance of 0.06 astronomical units. Its size is 1.77 Earth radii and its equilibrium temperature is 74.05 degrees Celsius.
Scientists have yet to determine the composition of the two super-Earths, so it’s not unlikely that they’re rocky or water-rich worlds. Both exoplanets lie near the inner edge of their host stars’ habitable zones, making them targets for future research aimed at understanding the evolution of hot, but potentially habitable, planets, even Venus-like ones. (Kobasi)
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