Astronomers looking for possible worlds that could be habitable outside the Solar System have discovered 5500 such candidates with two new giant additions that are orbiting a mysterious star.
The two newly discovered planets are bigger than Saturn, one of the biggest planets in our own Solar System, with the outer planet completing a year in 438 days. The two planets are orbiting a star nearly 700 light years away from Earth.
The two planets are orbiting a star that is an early K dwarf, which is cooler than the Sun. The Sun, in our Solar System, is a relatively hot star with a surface temperature of about 5,500 degrees Celsius and appears yellow-white in colour, while the K Dwarf stars are orange or orange-red in colour, reflecting their cooler temperatures compared to the Sun.
“The two planets, TOI-4600 b and c, could prove important to astronomers who investigate how large, gaseous planets form and evolve. And they begin to fill a gap in knowledge between gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn in our solar system, and “hot Jupiters” (as well as “warm Jupiters”) elsewhere in our galaxy,” Nasa said in its update.
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