Astronomers at UCL and the University of Warwick, as part of a global collaboration including partners in Chile, USA and Europe, have discovered the smallest known star to host a transiting giant planet, which should not exist under leading planet formation theories.
Astronomers at UCL and the University of Warwick, as part of a global collaboration including partners in Chile, USA and Europe, have discovered the smallest known star to host a transiting giant planet, which should not exist under leading planet formation theories.
Star TOI-6894 is just like many in our galaxy, a small red dwarf, and only ~20% of the mass of our Sun. Like many small stars, it is not expected to provide suitable conditions for the formation and hosting of a large planet.
However, as published today in Nature Astronomy, an international team of astronomers have found the unmistakable signature of a giant planet, called TOI-6894b, orbiting this tiny star.
This system has been discovered as part of a large-scale investigation of TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) data, looking for giant planets around low-mass stars, led by Dr Edward Bryant, who completed this work at UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory and the University of Warwick.
Read more at University College London
Image: TOI-6894b Exoplanet - artist's impression (Credit: University of Warwick/Mark Garlick)
