Using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), astronomers have discovered a new giant exoplanet orbiting an M-dwarf star. The recently discovered alien world called TOI-5344 b is similar to Saturn in size and mass. The discovery was reported in an article published on the preprint server on October 31. arXiv.

To date, TESS has detected approximately 6,900 exoplanet candidates (TESS Objects of Interest, or TOIs), of which 398 have been confirmed. Since its launch in April 2018, TESS has been surveying nearly 200,000 of the brightest stars near the Sun with an array of wide-angle cameras, looking for exoplanets that range from small and rocky to giant aliens. worlds

Another TOI sighting of TESS was confirmed by a team of astronomers led by Tae Han from the University of California, Irvine. They detected a transition signal in the light curve of TOI-5344, an M dwarf located approximately 444 light-years from Earth. The planetary nature of this signal was confirmed by subsequent ground observations.

“TOI-5344 b was discovered by TESS and confirmed by ground-based photometry, high-contrast speckle imaging, and sensitive RV [радіальними швидкостями]”, the researchers write in the article.

TOI-5344 b is almost 10 times larger and 135 times heavier than Earth; this gives it a density of 0.8 g/cm3.³. The planet orbits its host at a distance of about 0.04 AU every 3.8 days. The equilibrium temperature of TOI-5344 b is estimated to be approximately 679 K.

Based on the obtained parameters, the authors of the article classified TOI-5344 b as a Saturn-like planet. It also has a metal-to-mass ratio comparable to that of Saturn, they noted, and joins a small but growing group of about 20 GEMS (giant exoplanets around M-dwarf stars) with radii between 8 and 15 Earth radii. and is at least 80 times larger than our planet.

As for parent star TOI-5344, the study found that it has a radius of about 0.56 solar radii and a mass of 0.59 solar masses. The star is estimated to be 7.1 billion years old, has an effective temperature of 3770 K and a metallicity of 0.48 dex, making it one of the most metal-rich transiting GEMS masters.

As a result, researchers look forward to further discoveries of exoplanets similar to TOI-5344, which will help us better understand the formation and evolution of GEMS as a whole.

“Although GEMS is rare, a broad understanding of TESS has led to many new discoveries. We hope that through gradual increase in sample size the nature of GEMS formation will be revealed.” concluded the scientists.