Latest news with #TrottierInstituteforResearchonExoplanets
Ammon
26-07-2025
- Science
- Ammon
Scientists discover a 'super–Earth' planet 35 light years away
Ammon News - It's one of the biggest unanswered questions in science. Are there aliens out there, and if so, where are they hiding? Now, researchers may have taken a huge step towards answering this question. Using NASA's TESS space telescope, a team from Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets has detected a 'super–Earth' 35 light–years away that might be habitable. The planet, called L 98–59 f, is one of five worlds found orbiting a red dwarf star called L 98–59. However, it is the only one with the right conditions to support life. 'Finding a temperate planet in such a compact system makes this discovery particularly exciting,' said Charles Cadieux, lead author of the study. 'It highlights the remarkable diversity of exoplanetary systems and strengthens the case for studying potentially habitable worlds around low–mass stars.' L 98–59 was first discovered in 2019, and was originally confirmed to have just four planets around it. However, by carefully reanalysing data collected from ground–based and space–based telescopes, the team was able to identify a fifth planet. This planet does not transit its host star – meaning it doesn't pass directly between us and the star. However, its presence was confirmed through subtle variations in the star's motion. The scientists believe the planet receives about the same amount of stellar energy as Earth does from the sun. Excitingly, this places it 'firmly' within the habitable zone – a region where water could remain in liquid form. The new study also sheds light on the four other planets orbiting the star.
Canada News.Net
26-07-2025
- Science
- Canada News.Net
Planet with potential habitability discovered 35 light years away
MONTREAL, 26th July, 2025 (WAM) -- A research team from the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets at the University of Montreal has discovered a planet with characteristics that may make it suitable for life, located about 35 light years from Earth. According to Russia Today, the team used NASA's TESS space telescope to identify the planet, named L 98-59 f, which is one of five planets orbiting a red dwarf star. The planet lies within the "habitable zone" where liquid water could exist and receives a stellar energy amount similar to what Earth receives from the Sun. It is part of a compact and notably diverse planetary system. Previously, the L 98-59 star system was known to host only four planets, but detailed analysis of ground-based and space telescope data revealed the presence of a fifth planet. Unlike the other planets in the system, this one does not transit directly between its star and Earth. Instead, it was detected through subtle changes in the host star's motion.
Daily Mail
25-07-2025
- Science
- Daily Mail
Is THIS where aliens are hiding? Scientists discover a 'super–Earth' planet 35 light–years away – and it might have the right conditions to support life
It's one of the biggest unanswered questions in science. Are there aliens out there, and if so, where are they hiding? Now, researchers may have taken a huge step towards answering this question. Using NASA 's TESS space telescope, a team from Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets has detected a 'super–Earth' 35 light–years away that might be habitable. The planet, called L 98–59 f, is one of five worlds found orbiting a red dwarf star called L 98–59. However, it is the only one with the right conditions to support life. 'Finding a temperate planet in such a compact system makes this discovery particularly exciting,' said Charles Cadieux, lead author of the study. 'It highlights the remarkable diversity of exoplanetary systems and strengthens the case for studying potentially habitable worlds around low–mass stars.' The planet, called L 98–59 f, is one of five worlds found orbiting a red dwarf star called L 98–59 L 98–59 was first discovered in 2019, and was originally confirmed to have just four planets around it. However, by carefully reanalysing data collected from ground–based and space–based telescopes, the team was able to identify a fifth planet. This planet does not transit its host star – meaning it doesn't pass directly between us and the star. However, its presence was confirmed through subtle variations in the star's motion. The scientists believe the planet receives about the same amount of stellar energy as Earth does from the sun. Excitingly, this places it 'firmly' within the habitable zone – a region where water could remain in liquid form. The new study also sheds light on the four other planets orbiting the star. The innermost planet, L 98–59 b, is about 84 per cent the size of Earth, and about half its mass. Meanwhile, the two inner planets are believed to be similar to Jupiter's moon, Io, with extreme volcanic activity. Finally, the fourth planet may be a 'water world', the experts say. 'With its diversity of rocky worlds and range of planetary compositions, L 98–59 offers a unique laboratory to address some of the field's most pressing questions: What are super–Earths and sub–Neptunes made of?' asked René Doyon, co–author of the study. 'Do planets form differently around small stars? Can rocky planets around red dwarfs retain atmospheres over time?' Having found the fifth planet and learned more about the other four, the team now hopes to use James Webb – NASA's most powerful telescope – to study the star system in more detail. 'With these new results, L 98–59 joins the select group of nearby, compact planetary systems that we hope to understand in greater detail over the coming years,' said Alexandrine L'Heureux, co–author of the study. 'It's exciting to see it stand alongside systems like TRAPPIST–1 in our quest to unlock the nature and formation of small planets orbiting red dwarf stars.' PLANETARY SYSTEM L 98-59 The planetary system and its star - which are only around 35 light years away - are both called L 98-59. The planets in this system are the following, from closest to the star to further away: - L 98-59b: This rocky planet has half the mass of Venus (4.868×1024 kg). It's likely dry, but might have small amounts of water. It's smaller than the Earth but still bigger than Mars. - L 98-59c: Likely dry, but might have small amounts of water - L 98-59d: About 30 per cent of the mass of this planet could be water (but note that this would not be liquid water at the planet's surface) - L 98-59e: Has a 'year' of 12.8 days and is at least three times more massive than the Earth (a 'super-Earth'). Its temperature is thought to be only a few ten degrees warmer than that of the Earth. - L 98-59f: In the habitable zone of the star, meaning liquid water may exist at the surface of this planet
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists spotted an unheard-of planet. Webb just peered into it.
In deep space, far beyond our solar system, astronomers have spotted loads of super-Earths, mini-Neptunes, and hot Jupiters. But only once have they found an "ultra-hot Neptune" — a Neptune-size world orbiting extremely close to its star. A year lasts under a day on this scorching planet, dubbed "LTT 9779 b." After discovering this curious world in 2020, scientists have now used the powerful James Webb Space Telescope to peer into the exoplanet's atmosphere and better grasp how such a world works. "Finding a planet of this size so close to its host star is like finding a snowball that hasn't melted in a fire," Louis-Philippe Coulombe, a researcher at the Université de Montréal's Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets who led the study, said in a statement. "It's a testament to the diversity of planetary systems and offers a window into how planets evolve under extreme conditions." SEE ALSO: A dramatic total lunar eclipse is coming. You don't want to miss it. LTT 9779 b, nearly 30 times Earth's mass, is certainly extreme. It's tidally locked to its star — like the moon is locked to Earth — meaning that one side of it incessantly seared by its star, while the other is dark and cooler. LTT 9779 b is nearly 3,630 degrees Fahrenheit (2,000 Celsius) on its dayside. That's hotter than lava. The research team peered at LTT 9779 b for 22 hours, using an instrument on the Webb telescope called a spectrograph to reveal the composition of the planet's exotic atmosphere. (Similar to a prism, spectrographs spread an object's light into a spectrum of colors, revealing what's present or not in a far-off place.) They found clouds very unlike ours (which are made of water vapor) composed of silicates, which are minerals that make up rocks on Earth. These clouds were on the planet's western dayside, as opposed to its hotter eastern hemisphere, suggesting that strong winds on LTT 9779 b transport atmospheric elements around the planet. A conception of LTT 9779 b, located 262 light-years from Earth in the Milky Way galaxy, can be seen below. It depicts how highly reflective mineral clouds condense on the "slightly cooler" western dayside, but then evaporate when the planet's potent winds push these clouds to the hotter eastern dayside. An artist's conception of the "ultra-hot Neptune" LTT 9779 b. Credit: Benoit Gougeon / Université de Montréal Scientific attempts to understand this profoundly rare — as far as we know — world are just beginning. "We haven't finished piecing together the information about this planet yet," Jake Taylor, a scientist in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford who also worked on the study, explained. "We are currently using observations from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Very Large Telescope to study the dayside cloud structure in more detail to learn as much as possible." To date, astronomers have confirmed 5,834 exoplanets, with thousands more awaiting confirmation. The Webb telescope — a scientific collaboration between NASA, ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency — is designed to peer into the deepest cosmos and reveal new insights about the early universe. It's also examining intriguing planets in our galaxy, along with the planets and moons in our solar system. Here's how Webb is achieving unparalleled feats, and likely will for decades to come: - Giant mirror: Webb's mirror, which captures light, is over 21 feet across. That's over two-and-a-half times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope's mirror, meaning Webb has six times the light-collecting area. Capturing more light allows Webb to see more distant, ancient objects. The telescope is peering at stars and galaxies that formed over 13 billion years ago, just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. "We're going to see the very first stars and galaxies that ever formed," Jean Creighton, an astronomer and the director of the Manfred Olson Planetarium at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, told Mashable in 2021. - Infrared view: Unlike Hubble, which largely views light that's visible to us, Webb is primarily an infrared telescope, meaning it views light in the infrared spectrum. This allows us to see far more of the universe. Infrared has longer wavelengths than visible light, so the light waves more efficiently slip through cosmic clouds; the light doesn't as often collide with and get scattered by these densely packed particles. Ultimately, Webb's infrared eyesight can penetrate places Hubble can't. "It lifts the veil," said Creighton. - Peering into distant exoplanets: The Webb telescope carries specialized equipment called spectrographs that will revolutionize our understanding of these far-off worlds. The instruments can decipher what molecules (such as water, carbon dioxide, and methane) exist in the atmospheres of distant exoplanets — be they gas giants or smaller rocky worlds. Webb looks at exoplanets in the Milky Way galaxy. Who knows what we'll find? "We might learn things we never thought about," Mercedes López-Morales, an exoplanet researcher and astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics-Harvard & Smithsonian, previously told Mashable.
