Science News Desk – Astronomers have discovered a giant planet orbiting an unusually ‘small’ star some 280 light-years from Earth. The star is bigger than this planet, but there is no significant difference in the size of the two. The size of the newly discovered world is unexpected. It has been named TOI 5205b. Researchers have called it the ‘forbidden planet’. The planet is roughly the size of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, while the star is only four times larger. It was observed by researchers using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).
TESS was sent by NASA in 2018 to discover planets. It surveys the light of the brightest stars nearby. It makes a deep study of the light of those stars, so that it can be known whether any planet is orbiting them or not. The TESS mission has discovered thousands of potential planets. The planet we are talking about is orbiting a red dwarf star named TOI-5205. This star is only 40 percent the size and mass of our Sun. Where the temperature of our Sun is 5527 degree Celsius, its temperature is 3,127 degree Celsius.
An M dwarf star is smaller, cooler and redder than our Sun. Such dim stars are most common in our universe. In recent years, astronomers have learned that there is a high probability that there are planets orbiting these dwarf stars. There are not necessarily planets around every star in space. However, astronomers did not expect that a small star would host a giant planet. But when he saw the TOI-5205 planetary system, he was surprised. This study was recently published in The Astronomical Journal. Also understand that the planet is smaller than the star, but not by much.
Shubham Kanodia, a postdoctoral fellow at the Carnegie Institute and author of the study, said the host star TOI-5205 is four times the size of Jupiter. Yet it managed to form a Jupiter-sized planet which is quite surprising. According to the researchers, if compared, this star is like a small lemon, while the planet is like a pea. If we make such a comparison in our solar system, then the planet Jupiter will be equal to a pea and our Sun will be equal to an orange. When TOI 5205b passes in front of the star, it blocks seven percent of the planet’s light.