Scientists in India have discovered a unique new planet larger than Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. The planet, called TOI 1789, is 725 light years away and is known as an exoplanet, which is a planet orbiting a star outside our solar system. The surface temperature of TOI 1789 is very hot, around 1,700 degrees Celsius (2000kelvin), because it orbits very close to its parent star. It takes only 3.2 days to complete a full orbit, compared to 365 Earth days to orbit the Sun.
Planets like this are also known as 'hot-Jupiters' and experts say there are fewer than 10 such systems known to us on Earth. The discovery was made by the exoplanet research and search group at the Ahmedabad-based Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in India. They used a special instrument called PARAS (PRL Advanced Radial-velocity Ash-sky Search) - a fiber-optic spectrograph on the 1.2-meter Telescope at the Mount Ash Observatory. This special instrument was able to measure the mass of the planet.
"Using PARAS, which has the ability to measure the mass of an exoplanet, the exoplanet's mass was found to be 70 percent and its size is about 1.4 times that of Jupiter." according to the space agency.
Experts hope the discovery will help them learn more about how planets evolve.
"The detection of such a system improves our understanding of the various mechanisms responsible for inflation in 'hot Jupiter' and the formation and evolution of planetary systems around evolving and aging stars," they added.
This planet has a duration of one year and only three days. The findings were found by a group of astronomers from the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad, India. The team was led by Prof. Abhijit Chakraborty and researchers used the PRL Advanced Radial-velocity-gray-sky search (PARAS) fiber optic spectrograph. The planet, called TOI 1789b or HD 82139b, was found to be orbiting a star with a mass 1.5 from the Sun. It is 725 light years away.
"These measurements were made between December 2020 and March 2021. Follow-up measurements were also taken from the TCES spectrograph from Germany in April 2021 and independent photometric observations from the 43-centimeter PRL telescope at Mount Abu," India's space agency ISRO said.
The planet is 1.4 times the size of Jupiter with 70% of its mass. The duration of TOI 1789b's orbit of the star is only 3.2 days, making the planet very close or 0.05 times the distance between Earth and the Sun. These findings make the planet called a type of Hot Jupiter. The planet's temperature is also very hot, reaching 1727 Celsius or capable of melting iron. It is also reported that the planet is expanding so that its density is very low. So that makes it bigger than Jupiter even though it has a smaller mass. Other Hot Jupiters have been discovered using instruments such as the ecoplanet NGTS-10b. It was discovered as part of the Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) or KELT-9b, the hottest exoplanet with a surface temperature of 7,800 farenheit or 4,325 degrees Celsius. Studying hot Jupiters could help astronomers understand how planetary systems formed and evolved.
"The detection of such a system improves our understanding of the various mechanisms responsible for hot Jupiter inflation and the formation and evolution of planetary systems around evolving and aging stars," said ISRO.
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