Page 6 - Spec Tech Vol 1 Issue 04
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Two new temperate rocky worlds
discovered
Artist’s view showing the red star and its two planets, together with some of the telescopes used for the discovery. The data that
led to the discovery is depicted on the solar panels of the TESS satellite. Credit: University of Birmingham / Amanda J. Smith
An international research team including astronomers at the University of Birmingham, has just
announced the discovery of two "super-Earth" planets orbiting LP 890-9, a small, cool star
located about 100 light-years from Earth.
The star, also called TOI-4306 or SPECULOOS-2, is the second-coolest star found to host
planets, after the famous TRAPPIST-1.
The system's inner planet, called LP 890-9b, is about 30% larger than Earth and completes an
orbit around the star in just 2.7 days. This first planet was initially identified as a possible planet
candidate by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). This candidate was
confirmed and characterized by the SPECULOOS telescopes (Search for habitable Planets
Eclipsing Ultra-Cool Stars), one of which is operated by the University of Birmingham.
SPECULOOS researchers then used their telescopes to seek additional transiting planets in the
system that would have been missed by TESS. The telescopes of the SPECULOOS project,
installed at ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile and on the island of Tenerife, are optimised to
observe this type of star with high precision. The observations of LP 890-9 gathered by
SPECULOOS proved fruitful as they not only confirmed the first planet, but they were critical for
the detection of a second, previously unknown planet. This second planet, LP 890-9c (renamed
SPECULOOS-2c by the SPECULOOS researchers), is similar in size to the first (about 40%
larger than Earth) but has a longer orbital period of about 8.5 days.
Space Explorer 2022 6