/https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/60140e95674a8b2e2ed1df81/0x0.jpg "Two teenagers hit the jackpot when they discovered four planets orbiting a close sunny star")
The version of an artist of five planets orbiting the TOI-1233, four of which using the … [+]
NASA / JPL-Caltech
Two high school students just 16 and 18 years old have discovered four new exoplanets around the brightest known Sun-like star – and co-authored an article published in The Astronomical Journal.
A rare achievement, and one described by their mentor, Jasmine Wright (18) and Kartik Pinglé (16), as “hitting the jackpot”, is paid for four hours of work each week by the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, as part of his Student. Research Mentoring Program (SRMP).
Wright and Pinglé discovered the planets around a star called TOI-1233, the brightest known star similar in size and temperature to our own sun, about 200 light-years from the solar system in the constellation of Centaurus in the southern hemisphere. The star is also known as HD 108236. It was already known that one exoplanet was in orbit.
With discovery, the star becomes the brightest solar star known to offer four or more exoplanets. This would be an ideal target for NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
The young astronomers used data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a space telescope that searches for exoplanets by recording droplets in the brightness of stars. They also used data from ground telescopes.
“We wanted to see changes over time,” Pinglé said. “The idea is that if the planet passes through the star, or before it goes, it will (from time to time) cover the star and lower its brightness.”
A slight dip is a sign that a planet may be crossing its sun from the point of view of TESS.
“I was very excited and very shocked,” Wright said of their discovery of four planets orbiting a star called TOI-1233. “We knew that was the goal … but finding a multi-planetary system and being part of the discovery team was really cool.”
The planets orbiting TOI-1233 consist of a rocky ‘super-earth’ orbiting within four days, and three Neptune-like planets orbiting in six, 14 and 19.5 days respectively.
As a result, they have average surface temperatures ranging from 700 ° F to 1,500 ° F to unlikely to be able to house life, although their fast orbits mean more passages – and so it drops in the brightness of the host stars. This means more opportunities for astronomers to study the light that passes through the atmosphere of the exoplanets.
TOI-1233 / HD 108236 is 200 light-years away in the constellation of Centaurus. It’s just above the … [+]
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A research team recently used the characteristic Exoplanet Satellite (CHEOPS) to confirm a fifth planet, which takes 29 days to orbit the star.
There are possibly rocky planets further from TOI-1233, possibly within its “habitable zone” where liquid water would be possible.
It is also hoped that the discovery around TOI-1233 will help astronomers to better understand the fundamental processes of planet formation and evolution.
“With multi-planetary systems, you hit the jackpot,” said Wright and Pinglé mentor Tansu Daylan, a postdoctoral fellow at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. “In terms of characterizing planetary atmosphere around solar stars, it’s probably one of the best targets we’ll ever get.”
The planets originated from the same disk matter around the same star, but they ended up being different planets with different atmospheres and different climates due to their different orbits.
SRMP is designed to connect high school students interested in research with real scientists at Harvard and MIT, accepting approximately 12 students annually and prioritizing minority representatives. After being accepted, the students work with a mentor on a year-long research project.
Not surprisingly, both students are set on careers in astronomy. Wright has just been admitted to a five-year Master of Astrophysics program at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, while Pinglé, a junior in high school, plans to study applied mathematics or astrophysics.
I wish you clear sky and wide eyes.