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Discovery of Sub-Earth Planet: Ultra-Light and Super-Fast Exoplanet Is Not Like Anything in Our Solar System

The exoplanet GJ 367b orbits its star in an extremely short time. Only 8 hours, then a year has passed on this planet. We don’t know anything like this from our solar system: Mercury is the fastest planet here with an orbital period of 88 days, compared to GJ 367b it is a lame snail. GJ 367b is a rocky planet that is much denser than Earth and similar in structure to Mercury. It probably has a large iron core. This precise characterization is based on high-precision measurements of radius and mass – not a matter of course for exoplanets.GJ 367b orbits a dwarf star that is about half the size of the Sun. The radiation on the planet is enormous because of the small distance to the star: On the side of the planet facing the star, the temperature is between 1300° and 1500° Celsius. At such temperatures, iron and rocks melt. Credit: SPP 1992 (Patricia Klein)

As far as extrasolar planets go, ‘GJ 367 b’ is a featherweight. With half the mass of Earth, the newly discovered planet is one of the lightest among the nearly 5000 exoplanets known today. It takes the extrasolar planet approximately eight hours to orbit its parent star. With a diameter of just over 9000 kilometers, GJ 367 b is slightly larger than MarsMars is the second smallest planet in our solar system and the fourth planet from the sun. Iron oxide is prevalent in Mars’ surface resulting in its reddish color and its nickname “The Red Planet.” Mars’ name comes from the Roman god of war.”>Mars. The planetary system is located just under 31 light years from Earth and is thus ideal for further investigation. The discovery demonstrates that it is possible to precisely determine the properties of even the smallest, least massive exoplanets. Such studies provide a key to understanding how terrestrial planets form and evolve.

An international group of 78 researchers led by Kristine W. F. Lam and Szilárd Csizmadia from the Institute of Planetary Research at DLR (German Aerospace Center) report on the results of their studies in the scientific journal Science. With an orbital period of only one-third of an Earth day, GJ 367 b is a fast mover. “From the precise determination of its radius and mass, GJ 367b is classified as a rocky planet,” reports Kristine Lam. “It seems to have similarities to Mercury. This places it among the sub-Earth sized terrestrial planets and brings research one step forward in the search for a ‘second Earth’.”

More accurate exoplanet trackers possible

A quarter of a century after the first discovery of an extrasolar planet, the focus has shifted to characterizing these planets more precisely, in addition to making new discoveries. At present, it is possible to construct a much more precise profile for most known exoplanets. Many exoplanets were discovered using the transit method – the measurement of minute differences in the emitted light, or its apparent magnitude, of a star as a planet passes in front of it (with respect to the observer). GJ 367 b was also discovered using this method, with the help of NASAEstablished in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government that succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). It is responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. It’s vision is “To discover and expand knowledge for the benefit of humanity.””>NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESSLaunched on April 18, 2018, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is a mission to search nearby stars for undiscovered worlds with a gold of discovering thousands of exoplanets around nearby bright stars.”>TESS).

Origin of the small fast-moving planets still unknown

GJ 367 b belongs to the ‘ultra-short period’ (USP) group of exoplanets that orbit their star in less than 24 hours. “We already know a few of these, but their origins are currently unknown,” says Kristine Lam. “By measuring the precise fundamental properties of the USP planet, we can get a glimpse of the system’s formation and evolution history.” Following the discovery of this planet using TESS and the transit method, the spectrum of its star was then studied from the ground using the radial velocity method. The mass was determined using the HARPSThe High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) is one of the most successful planet hunters in the history of astronomy. Housed at ESO’s La Silla Observatory and attached to the 3.6-meter telescope, the HARPS spectrograph searches for exoplanets by detecting minute wobbles in a star’s motion.”>HARPS instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s 3.6m telescope. With the meticulous study and combination of different evaluation methods, the radius and mass of the planet were accurately determined: its radius is 72 percent of Earth’s radius, and its mass 55 percent of Earth’s mass.

Highest accuracy for radius and mass

By determining its radius and mass with an accuracyHow close the measured value conforms to the correct value.”>accuracy of 7 and 14 percent respectively, the researchers were also able to draw conclusions about the exoplanetAn exoplanet (or extrasolar planet) is a planet that is outside the Solar System, orbiting around a star other than the Sun. The first suspected scientific detection of an exoplanet occurred in 1988, with the first confirmation of detection coming in 1992.”>exoplanet’s inner structure. It is a low-mass rocky planet, but has a higher density than the Earth. “The high density indicates the planet is dominated by an iron core,” explains Szilárd Csizmadia. “These properties are similar to those of Mercury, with its disproportionately large iron and nickel core that differentiates it from other terrestrial bodies in the Solar System.” However, the planet’s proximity to its star means it is exposed to an extreme high level of radiation, more than 500 times stronger than what the Earth experiences. The surface temperature could reach up to 1500 degrees CelsiusThe Celsius scale, also known as the centigrade scale, is a temperature scale named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius. In the Celsius scale, 0 °C is the freezing point of water and 100 °C is the boiling point of water at 1 atm pressure.”>Celsius – a temperature at which all rocks and metals would be melted. GJ 367 b therefore cannot be considered a ‘second Earth’.

Parent star is a ‘red dwarf’

The parent star of this newly discovered exoplanet, a red dwarf called GJ 367, is only about half the size of the Sun. This was beneficial for its discovery as the transit signal of the orbiting planet is particularly significant. Red dwarfs are not only smaller, but also cooler than the Sun. This makes their associated planets easier to find and characterize. They are among the most common stellar objects in our cosmic neighborhood and are therefore suitable targets for exoplanet research. Researchers estimate that these red dwarfs, also known as ‘class M stars’, are orbited by an average of two to three planets.

More on this discovery:

Reference: “GJ 367b: A dense ultra-short period sub-Earth planet transiting a nearby red dwarf star” by Kristine W. F. Lam, Szilárd Csizmadia, Nicola Astudillo-Defru, Xavier Bonfils, Davide Gandolfi, Sebastiano Padovan, Massimiliano Esposito, Coel Hellier, Teruyuki Hirano, John Livingston, Felipe Murgas, Alexis M. S. Smith, Karen A. Collins, Savita Mathur, Rafael A. Garcia, Steve B. Howell, Nuno C. Santos, Fei Dai, George R. Ricker, Roland Vanderspek, David W. Latham, Sara Seager, Joshua N. Winn, Jon M. Jenkins, Simon Albrecht, Jose M. Almenara, Etienne Artigau, Oscar Barragán, François Bouchy, Juan Cabrera, David Charbonneau, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Alexander Chaushev, Jessie L. Christiansen, William D. Cochran, José R. De Meideiros, Xavier Delfosse, Rodrigo F. Díaz, René Doyon, Philipp Eigmüller, Pedro Figueira, Thierry Forveille, Malcolm Fridlund, Guillaume Gaisné, Elisa Goffo, Iskra Georgieva, Sascha Grziwa, Eike Guenther, Artie P. Hatzes, Marshall C. Johnson, Petr Kabáth, Emil Knudstrup, Judith Korth, Pablo Lewin, Jack J. Lissauer, Christophe Lovis, Rafael Luque, Claudio Melo, Edward H. Morgan, Robert Morris, Michel Mayor, Norio Narita, Hannah L. M. Osborne, Enric Palle, Francesco Pepe, Carina M. Persson, Samuel N. Quinn, Heike Rauer, Seth Redfield, Joshua E. Schlieder, Damien Ségransan, Luisa M. Serrano, Jeffrey C. Smith, Ján Šubjak, Joseph D. Twicken, Stéphane Udry, Vincent Van Eylen and Michael Vezie, 2 December 2021, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.aay3253

Source: SciTechDaily