Researchers have unveiled a solar system with up to seven exoplanets around TOI-1136, employing advanced methodologies for precise measurements of their characteristics, which could significantly influence theories on planet formation.
A recently discovered solar system with six confirmed exoplanets and a possible seventh is boosting astronomers’ knowledge of planet formation and evolution. Relying on a globe-spanning arsenal of observatories and instruments, a team led by researchers at the University of California, Irvine has compiled the most precise measurements yet of the exoplanets’ masses, orbital properties, and atmospheric characteristics.
In a paper published on January 29 in The Astronomical Journal, the researchers share the results of the
By stellar standards, TOI-1136 is young, a mere 700 million years old, another feature that has attracted exoplanet hunters. Robertson said that juvenile stars are both “difficult and special” to work with because they’re so active. Magnetism, sunspots and solar flares are more prevalent and intense during this stage of a star’s development, and the resulting radiation blasts and sculpts planets, affecting their atmospheres.
TOI-1136’s confirmed exoplanets, TOI-1136 b through TOI-1136 g, are categorized as “sub-Neptunes” by the experts. Robertson said the smallest one is more than twice the radius of Earth, and others are up to four times Earth’s radius, comparable to the sizes of DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/ad1330
Joining Robertson and Beard on this study were researchers from Spain’s Astrophysics Institute of the Canary Islands; the California Institute of Technology; Sweden’s