A system of six exoplanets provides information about the formation and evolution of planets. Thanks to its arsenal of cutting-edge technology, scientists have discovered a multi-planet star system that provides rare insight into how planets form and behave around a young star.

TOI-1136 is a dwarf star located 270 light-years from Earth in the Milky Way galaxy and is considered close to the Milky Way because it is 100,000 light-years across. There are six confirmed planets orbiting the star, and scientists strongly suspect the existence of a seventh.

“Because very few star systems have this many planets, its size approaches our own solar system,” said Tara Fetherolf, a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Astrophysics at Cal State University San Marcos and co-author of a new paper on the subject. system. “It’s similar enough and different enough that we can learn a lot.”

Information taken from TOI-1136 system

Article published January 29 Astronomy Magazine, includes precise measurements of exoplanet masses, details on the shape of their orbits, and the characteristics of their atmospheres. Details like these were created based on the system’s first observations in 2019, using data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).

Stephen Kane, professor of planetary astrophysics at UC Riverside and principal investigator of the TESS Keck Survey, explains how the newly discovered system is different from many other known systems. First of all, his age distinguishes him from others. At only 700 million years old, this star is very young compared to our solar system, which is 4.5 billion years old.

“This gives us the opportunity to study planets immediately after their formation, and solar system formation is a hot topic. “Every time we find a system with more than one planet, it gives us more information for our theories about how systems form and how our system got here,” Fetherolf said. .

Problems and successes in the study of young star systems

Small stars are especially difficult to work with because they are so active. Magnetism, sunspots, and solar flares are more common and intense at this stage of the star’s development, and the resulting radiation explodes and forms planets, affecting their atmospheres.

“Young stars are always misbehaving. Like babies, they are very active. This can make high-precision measurements difficult,” said Kane.

All of the planets in the system are the same age and formed under the same conditions. “This will help us make a clear comparison not only of how planets change over time, but also of how their atmospheres develop at different distances from the star, which is perhaps most important,” said Kane.

Because all the planets in this system are relatively close to each other, the research team was able to measure things that are difficult to measure in other systems.

“Usually when we look for planets, we look at the effect of planets on their stars. We observe the movement of the star and interpret it as the gravitational effect of the planets on the star. Here we also see the planets being pulled towards each other,” said Kane.

Using the Automated Planet Finder telescope at the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton in California and the High Resolution Echelon Spectrometer at the WM Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, researchers detected subtle fluctuations in the stars’ motions that helped them determine mass. planets at an unprecedented rate. precision.

To get such precise information about the planets, the team created computer models using hundreds of observed velocity measurements superimposed on transit data. Corey Bird is the lead author of the paper and holds a PhD from the University of California, Irvine. The combination of such readings provides more information about the system than ever before, the physics major said.

“It took a lot of trial and error, but we were very pleased with our results after developing one of the most complex planetary system models in the exoplanet literature to date,” said Byrd.