UniSQ PhD student leads team that discovers “rare” Neptune-sized planet
Astronomers led by a UniSQ student have discovered a ‘rare’ Neptune-sized planet outside the Solar System, where a year lasts for just 21 hours.
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Astronomers have discovered a “rare” Neptune-sized planet outside the Solar System where a year lasts for just 21 hours.
The discovery was made by a team of astronomers led by UniSQ PhD student Emma Nabbie.
Ms Nabbie said the discovery of a planet so close to its host start was “really, really rare”.
“Planets of this size generally don’t exist so close to their host star,” Nabbie said.
The discovery of the planet, named TOI-3261 b, is the fourth known of its kind.
TOI-3261 b’s discovery was made by astronomers through a space telescope that detected changes to the planet’s brightness.
“The telescope stared at the star and saw a change in the star’s brightness from the planet blocking some of the starlight when it moved in front,” Ms Nabbie said.
Astronomers were able to confirm the planet’s existence using telescopes located in Chile.
Ms Nabbie said that with future research using the James Webb space telescope she was hoping to investigate further the planet’s appearance.
“With something like the James Webb space telescope … we can see what sort of chemicals or molecules are in its atmosphere and that can tell us what it’s made of and what types of colours it would be,” she said.
Ms Nabbie said the Neptune-sized planet’s proximity to its host star and extreme temperature meant that life on it was impossible.
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