A citizen scientist has discovered a giant gaseous planet about 379 light-years from Earth, orbiting a star with the same mass as the Sun, NASA has said.
The exoplanet, called TOI-2180 b, was discovered in data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).
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TOI-2180 b is almost three times more massive than Jupiter but has the same diameter, meaning it is more dense than Jupiter. This made scientists wonder whether it formed in a different way than Jupiter.
Further, through computer models, the team determined that the new planet may have as much as 105 Earth masses worth of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium.
“That’s a lot. That’s more than what we suspect is inside Jupiter,” said Paul Dalba, an astronomer at the University of California, Riverside, and lead author of the study.
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The Jupiter-size planet is special for astronomers because its 261-day year is long compared to many known gas giants outside our solar system.
With an average temperature of about 170 degrees Fahrenheit, TOI-2180 b is also warmer than room temperature on Earth, and warmer than the outer planets of our solar system including Jupiter and Saturn.
But compared to the array of transiting giant exoplanets that astronomers have found orbiting other stars, TOI-2180 b is abnormally chilly, NASA said.
The result, published in the Astronomical Journal, also suggests the planet is just a bit farther from its star than Venus is from the Sun.
To track the planet, professional astronomers and citizen scientists engaged in “a global uniting effort”.
Using TESS data, scientists looked for changes in brightness of nearby stars, which indicated the presence of orbiting planets.
“Discovering and publishing TOI-2180 b was a great group effort demonstrating that professional astronomers and seasoned citizen scientists can successfully work together,” said Tom Jacobs of Bellevue, Washington, a former US naval officer who discovered the exoplanet.