The new extrasolar planet, named TOI-778 b, has a radius 1.37 times the size of Jupiter and an equilibrium temperature of 1,287 °C.

An international group of astronomers reported in an article, recently published in the arXiv preprint service, the discovery of a new exoplanet that was described as ‘hot Jupiter’, because it presents characteristics similar to those of the largest planet in the solar system.

According to the scientists, the space photometry method of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) was used to locate the Jovian-sized planet, named TOI-778 b. TESS was designed by NASA to search for transiting extrasolar objects by studying about 200,000 bright celestial bodies close to the Sun.

Knowing the characteristics of the new exoplanet

Likewise, other methods were used to determine the characteristics of TOI-778 b, among which the measurements of radial velocities using Doppler spectroscopy, as well as photometric observations from Earth, stand out.

Knowing the characteristics of the new exoplanet

Likewise, other methods were used to determine the characteristics of TOI-778 b, among which the measurements of radial velocities using Doppler spectroscopy, as well as photometric observations from Earth, stand out.

TOI-778 b has a radius of 1.37 times the size of Jupiter, but its amount of matter is 2.8 times the mass of the largest planet in the universe, yielding a density of 1.3 grams per cubic centimeter.

The researchers claimed that the exoplanet completes one orbit around its red dwarf every 4.63 days at a distance of 0.06 astronomical units (AU). TOI-778 b has an equilibrium temperature of 1,287 °C.

According to the study, the parent star close to TOI-778 b is a rapidly rotating early red dwarf star of spectral type F3V, since it has a rotation speed of almost 40 kilometers per second. At the same time, the star identified as TOI-778, which is 71% larger and 40% more massive than the Sun, is 1.95 billion years old and has an effective temperature of between 6,426°C and 6,526°C. The red dwarf is located about 528 light years away from Earth.

Since TOI-778 b’s orbit is close to aligning with the stellar equator, with a projected obliquity to the host star’s sky of 19 degrees, it is estimated that this exoplanet migrated through the red dwarf’s disk, rather than reach your current location by chaotic means.

“TOI-778 b joins a cohort of other ‘hot Jupiters’ with well-aligned orbits, suggesting that disk migration is the likely case for their evolution to their current positions,” the astronomers concluded.

source: https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.08242