New Delhi

NASA made a mad discovery of a rare system of six hyperactive exoplanets, with a seventh “misbehaving” infant star. This system of planets with a star is quite similar to our solar system, which raises curiosity to explore more of this region, said scientists. 

Advertisment

This system of exoplanets is orbiting a relatively close dwarf star in the Milky Way called TOI-1136, which is 270 light years away from Earth. There are a huge number of such exoplanet systems in this region that inspired scientists to study deeper.

Also Read | Humans have already dumped 7 tonnes of junk on Mars, map reveals

"Because few star systems have as many planets as this one does, it's getting close in size to our solar system," Tara Fetherolf, team member and a visiting professor of astrophysics at the University of California, said in a statement. "It's both similar enough and different enough that we can learn a lot."

Advertisment

Discovery of young exoplanet system with infant star could help in understanding solar system better

The initial study of the TOI-1136 planetary system was done by NASA using its Transitioning Survey Satellite (TESS) in 2019. Fetherolf and team found masses of planets in the region with their orbits and even some trace of their atmospheres. 

The planets in the system were designated names between TOI-1136 b to TOI-1136 g, and termed as "sub-Neptune" planets. The smallest of the six confirmed planets has a width twice that of Earth, while some of its sibling planets are as large as four times the size of our planet. 

Advertisment

Also Read | Japan's moon lander clicks final image before going dormant once again

Later it was found that TOI-1136 exoplanets are so close to their parent star that they only take 88 Earth days to complete one orbit. This was a major discovery because 88 days is the orbital period of Mercury, which is the closest planet to the Sun, meaning that all these planets may be closer to their star than that tiny planet is to the Sun. 

"They're weird planets to us because we don't have anything exactly like them in our solar system," Rae Holcomb, team member and a physics Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, said in a separate statement. "But the more we study other planet systems, it seems like they may be the most common type of planet in the galaxy."

Also Read | Scientists stumble upon 90,000-year-old human footprints on Moroccan beach. Here's what it indicates

This system of TOI-1136 is quite young, much younger than our solar system, which makes TOI-1136 a toddler in comparison to our home system. This could be of immense importance for astronomers and scientists to learn more about the formation of the solar system, which is a hot topic, said Fetherolf. 

"Any time we find a multi-planet system it gives us more information to inform our theories about how systems come to be and how our system got here."

The hyperactivity of these much younger exoplanets and a star will be a problem for scientists as it will make high-precision measurements difficult, as they are still juvenile stars. 

(With inputs from agencies)