The NASA TESS-Keck Survey provides details on the mass and density of 126 planets.
Although thousands of planets have been discovered orbiting other stars, our understanding of them remains limited. A NASA catalog featuring 126 newly discovered exotic worlds provides detailed measurements, enabling comparisons with our own solar system. The catalog details a fascinating mix of planet types beyond our solar system, from rare worlds with extreme environments to ones that could possibly support life.
The planets were analyzed by a large, international team of scientists using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) in collaboration with the W.M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawai’i. They are described in a recent edition of The Astrophysical Journal Supplement.
Scientific Insights from Exoplanetary Mass and Radius
“Relatively few of the previously known exoplanets have a measurement of both the mass and the radius. The combination of these measurements tells us what the planets could be made of and how they formed,” said Stephen Kane, UC Riverside astrophysicist and principal investigator of the TESS-Keck Survey.
“With this information, we can begin to answer questions about where our solar system fits into the grand tapestry of other planetary systems,” Kane said.
The research team spent three years developing the catalog. They analyzed more than 13,000 radial velocity (RV) measurements to calculate the masses of 120 confirmed planets, plus six candidate planets, spread out over the northern sky.
Though the planets themselves aren’t visible, they do affect their host stars’ light curves, allowing scientists to detect them. The new discoveries bring the total number of TESS-confirmed exoplanets to more than 400.
The catalog also includes a planet that orbits its star in less than 12 hours, making it one of the fastest-orbiting planets known so far.
This new catalog represents a major contribution both to NASA’s TESS mission and toward answering the question of whether other planets are capable of hosting life as we know it. “Are we unusual? The jury is still out on that one, but our new mass catalog represents a major step toward answering that question,” Kane said.
Source: https://scitechdaily.com/international-planet-hunters-discover-dozens-of-strange-new-worlds/