A team from the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad has identified a new exoplanet, TOI-6038A b, located outside the Solar System. The planet falls into the sub-Saturn category, which is not present in our planetary system.
TOI-6038A b is significantly larger than Earth but smaller than Saturn. It has a mass 78.5 times that of Earth and a radius 6.41 times that of Earth, making it capable of fitting approximately 263 Earths inside it.
The exoplanet orbits a bright F-type star in a circular path every 5.83 days. F-type stars are hotter and more luminous than the Sun, though not as extreme as the hottest stars in the universe.
The planet’s host star, TOI-6038A, is part of a wide binary system alongside a K-type star, TOI-6038B, located 3,217 AU away. The presence of this companion star raises questions about the planet’s formation and migration patterns.
This is the second exoplanet discovery using the PARAS-2 spectrograph, attached to the 2.5-metre telescope at PRL’s Mount Abu Observatory. The discovery highlights India’s advancements in astronomical instrumentation.
Initial analysis suggests that TOI-6038A b has a dense structure with a massive rocky core making up nearly 75% of its total mass. This information could help refine planetary formation models.
The planet’s brightness makes it suitable for atmospheric characterisation and spin-orbit alignment studies, which could contribute to understanding exoplanet migration. The findings have been published in The Astronomical Journal.