NASA discovers “strange” planets – with a special phenomenon

New planet! It fascinates science and NASA because of the possibility of a special phenomenon.

California / New Mexico – Scientists at the US Federal Agency for space travel NASA made a “strange” discovery. In their search for extraterrestrial life forms, experts have set their sights on a new planet. What’s especially exciting about this discovery: it could have a rare climatic phenomenon in its atmosphere.

Researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the University of New Mexico have found the exoplanet and named it TOI-1231b. It orbits an M-type dwarf star. It is not a yellow dwarf, like our sun, but a red star.

NASA discovers “strange” planets: this is how experts did

NASA scientists confirm that a new era has ushered in. After mostly only previous exoplanets were counted, it is now also possible to closely examine individual planets and their atmospheres. Initially, experts started from the red dwarf and were distinguished by it. They were also able to determine the radius and mass of the newly discovered planet TOI-1231 b. Using this data, it was then possible for them to determine the density and make a hypothesis about the planet’s atmosphere. It turns out that the planet is smaller than Neptune and larger than the Earth. Its orbit is 24 days.

It is eight times closer to its red dwarf star than Earth is to the Sun. However, because the star is weaker, temperatures on planet Earth are relatively similar to ours. The temperature should be about 57 degrees Celsius on the planet. With an atmosphere of 330 K, TOI-1231 b is one of the cooler small exoplanets that could previously be used for atmospheric studies, NASA explains.

NASA announces discovery: a new planet that could have a special atmosphere

What interests researchers is the possibility of clouds in the planet’s atmosphere. It may even consist of water. The researchers came up with this because the find is very similar to the exoplanet K2-18b. This was the first time an astronomical sense was able to detect water vapor. “TOI-1231 b is one of the few known planets with the same size and temperature. NASA researcher Jennifer Burt explains to us, according to EurekAlert!

In fact, it is almost impossible to detect atoms in the atmospheres of exoplanets. Because its existence is hidden by parts of the Earth’s atmosphere and interstellar gas. But TOI-1231 b and its dwarf star are rapidly moving away from Earth. This allows the atoms to move away and then be picked up by the Hubble telescope.

New planet discovered: NASA researcher reports ‘strange’ exoplanet

“One of the most amazing results of our research on exoplanets is that we have not yet found a planetary system similar to our own.” Jennifer Burt reports and adds: “The newly discovered planet is weird too – but we’re going one step further into the planets compared to our planetary neighbors.” This is mainly the case because the exoplanet TOI-1231 b is relatively very cool. (Sofia Luther)