Recent planetary discoveries could help us figure out how the Earth and our Solar System evolved during their teenage years. As intriguing as that might sound, scientists are pretty optimistic and aim to find out more details soon.
The planets in question are actually four exoplanets that reside approximately 130 light-years away, orbiting stars TOI 1807 and TOI 2076.
Here is what you need to know.
Key Data About Earth’s Teenage Years
Scientists made quite the discovery and now they try to find more answers about Earth during its teenage years using the new data.
The recently found exoplanets, four K-type dwarf stars, are part of the constellations of Canes Venatici and Bootes. They’re more orange than our Sun and are thought to have evolved in the same gas cloud approximately 200 million years ago. And that’s not all.
“They’re not newborns, but they’re also not settled down; learning more about planets in this teen stage will ultimately help us understand older planets in other systems,” explained Christina Hedges, an astronomer at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute.
The exoplanets were discovered using NASA’s TESS satellite. You can watch below a video released by NASA about related stars that have young exoplanets:
How the exoplanets will help scientists?
According to scientists’ findings, the planetary systems that exist in a transitional teenage phase can offer us the chance to probe some of the long-standing questions about Earth in the beginning.
Scientists are now working on calculating the exoplanets’ masses. However, resistance from the hyperactive young stars could turn scientists’ work into a challenge.
The planets have initially thick atmospheres from their formation in the dust around infants stars and disks of gas. There are cases in which planets can lose their initial atmosphere because of the stellar radiation, remaining with some rocky cores.
The ages of TOI 1807 and TOI 2076 systems indicate that their planets could be in the middle of an atmospheric evolution.
More data will be soon available as scientists start to investigate the case more.
