The outer planets – along with two other planets – revolve around a star about 10 billion years old.

Scientists have discovered some ancient planets around an orange dwarf star. These are three planets, one of which is a hot rocky giant Earth named TOI-561b. “The TOI-561b is one of the oldest rocky planets that have ever been discovered,” said researcher Lauren Weiss.

Old
Researchers estimate that the entire TOI-561 system is about 10 billion years old. This makes the system one of the oldest systems known. Therefore, the discovery of the ancient rocky super-Earth is very special. Because it means that rocky planets – like our Earth – have a long life. Moreover, the early rocky planets had also seen daylight long ago. Weiss concludes, “The existence of this exoplanet shows that the universe has produced rocky planets nearly since its birth.”

at studying The researchers were also able to reveal some interesting properties of TOI-561b. It turns out that the planet is about 50 percent larger than the planet Earth. Additionally, TOI-561b takes less than half a day to complete a circle around its parent star. This is too short. “Every day that you are on Earth, this planet orbits its star twice,” explains researcher Stephen Kane.

Hiti
So TOI-561b is orbiting its star in a very close orbit. This means that temperatures on the planet can rise dramatically. The estimated average surface temperature is over 1700 ° C.

density
Although TOI-561b is nearly three times the mass of Earth, the team calculated that its density is equal to that of our planet. This is very cool. “This is surprising, because you expect (looking at the larger mass, ed) that the density will be higher,” says Kane. “This is consistent with the idea that the planet is very old.” Since the planet is older, its densities should be lower. “This is because many of the heavy elements that later spawned planets were unavailable for a long time,” explains Kane. Heavy elements form from fusing into stars with age. Ultimately, the stars explode, throwing these elements around the universe. Then new stars and planets are born from this dust.

Livable
Unfortunately, researchers suspect TOI-561b is not applicable. It would be too hot to absorb life as we know it. However, this does not mean that the planet has always been uninhabitable. Perhaps this was possible in the distant past. So astronomers are constantly trying to understand the relationship between the mass and radius of the planets they find. This information provides more insights into the internal structure of planets far away from visiting, using current technology. “The information about the interior of the planet gives us an idea of ​​whether the surface is habitable for life,” explains Kane. “While TOI-561b is unlikely to inhabit today, it can be considered a precursor. There are probably still many rocky worlds around the oldest stars in the universe waiting to be discovered.”

The ancient planet was discovered with the help of a planetary hunter Transit of an exoplanet survey satellite (he-goat). TESS launched in April 2018, and the search for nearby planets opened in July of the same year. Since then, the telescope has discovered many exoplanets. Last April, a planetary hunter discovered it first Earthy planet And she actually tracks it first Exocometin On. Many discoveries will undoubtedly follow. In a few years, TESS will study at least 500,000 nearby stars and reveal the Earth and the super-Earth around many of them. TESS is also expected to observe hundreds of thousands of binary stars, leaving many other planets orbiting such binary systems waiting to be discovered.

The pieces