Astronomers have discovered a new super-Earth exoplanet orbiting a nearby star using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The newly found alien world, designated TOI-1846 b, is about 2 times larger and 4 times more massive than Earth. Located 154 light years away, the planet orbits its host every 3.93 days at a distance of 0.036 AU from it.
The exoplanet’s radius and mass make it a water-rich super-Earth, placing it in the “radius valley,” a region where rocky super-Earths and gaseous sub-Neptunes are observed to be scarce. With an equilibrium temperature of 568.1 K, TOI-1846 b is suitable for further study.
The star TOI-1846, also known as TIC 198385543, has a mass approximately 0.42 solar masses and an effective temperature of 3,568 K. The discovery was made using ground-based follow-up photometric and spectroscopic observations to confirm the planetary nature of the signal detected by TESS.
Future studies suggest that radial velocity observations could unveil TOI-1846 b’s composition, making it a promising candidate for further analysis.
Source: https://phys.org/news/2025-07-astronomers-super-earth-exoplanet-orbiting.html