One of the most prevalent questions in astronomy over recent years has been – Are we alone? Though planet hunters keep looking for habitable zones in the galaxy, a fresh discovery made the headlines among the scientific communities across the globe.
Citizen researchers, members of the planet Hunters TESS project discovered two exoplanets that orbit a Sun-like star.
The new discovery was published in Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, and it mentioned more than a dozen citizen scientists, members of the project, under the leadership of NASA.
The star known as HD 152843 is approximately 352 light-years away from our planet and is approximately the same mass as our Sun, though approximately 1.5 times bigger and brighter.
The two planets orbiting the star are two exotic exemplars, and if compared to our solar system, they can be found somewhere within the orbit of Mercury.
Planet b is about 3.4 times larger than Earth but comparable in size with Neptune and orbits the star every 12 days.
Planet c, on the other hand, is located farther, and it is 5.8 times bigger than Earth, orbiting the star once every 19-35 days.
The discovery was made thanks to data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (also known as TESS).
The star’s brightness changed over the observation period, each time the planets came in sight, a dip in intensity was noticeable.
Scientists are persistently analyzing the two planets and their host star to confirm that the mass of the two and are hopeful that once the James Webb Telescope, which will probably be launched later this year, begins feeding relevant data, they will be able to analyze additional details about the molecules that make up the atmosphere of the system.
