The universe is a deep mystery, and astronomers and other experts are constantly trying to reveal one or the other secret through their research. In a recent study, it was discovered that there is a hot, rocky exoplanet known as the super-Earth. This planet is present in the Milky Way galaxy and is believed to orbit one of the oldest stars in the galaxy.
According to a report published in CNN, the super-Earth is called an exoplanet because it is outside the solar system. The reason behind the name is that the super-Earth has three times the mass of the Earth and is about 50% larger than the Earth. This planet is also known as TOI-561b.
According to experts, the super-Earth can complete an orbit around its star in less than half a day of the Earth. As for the temperature of this planet, it is somewhere around 3140 degrees Fahrenheit. The surface temperature is the result of approaching the star. Stephen Kane, co-author of the study and astrophysicist at the University of California, Riverside, in a statement confirmed the information about the time of the orbit. He mentioned that for every day a person spends on Earth, the exoplanet orbits its star twice.
The next obvious question here is how this planet called TOI-561b was discovered. Experts found this planet through the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 2018. The planet was found in the thick galactic disk of the Milky Way galaxy. To be fully sure of their discovery, experts went to the WM Keck Observatory in Hawaii to determine the mass, radius and density of the super-Earth. Understanding mass and radius helps astronomers learn more about its internal structure.
Their findings were shocking because they found that although the mass of the planet is three times that of the Earth, its density is almost the same. Reacting to this, Stephen Kane said: “This is surprising, because we would expect the density to be higher.”
He also mentioned that this planet is not capable of supporting habitable life. Stephen added that knowing the inside of the planet helps to understand whether the planet’s surface is habitable or not. “Although this planet is unlikely to be inhabited today, it could be a harbinger of many rocky worlds that have not yet been discovered around the oldest stars in our galaxy,” he added.