Professor Abhijit Chakraborty of the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, led an international team that located the densest alien planet, 13 times bigger than Jupiter.
This exoplanet is PRL’s third from India. The discovery was detailed in Astronomy & Astrophysics Letters.
The crew utilized the Gurushikhar Observatory’s PRL Advanced Radial-velocity Abu-sky Search spectrograph (PARAS) to precisely establish the planet’s mass. Exoplanets weigh 14 g/cm3.
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) first identified the star as a possible host for an undiscovered secondary body. The new planet orbits TOI4603 or HD 245134. The object has been renamed TOI 4603b and HD 245134b after becoming a planet.
731 light years from Earth, the planet orbits its star daily. The planet is heated at 1396 degrees Celsius.
The planet’s mass range between massive giant planets and low-mass brown dwarfs makes it unusual, according to an Isro press statement.
Only five exoplanets with masses 11–16 times Jupiter are known.
While searching for alien life, scientists have uncovered about 5000 exoplanets beyond our solar system with unique properties, atmospheres, and natures.
The freshly discovered exoplanet TOI 4603b is one of the most massive and dense giant planets orbiting its home star at less than one-tenth the distance of our Sun and Earth.
Isro said the discovery “provides valuable insights into the formation, migration, and evolution mechanisms of massive exoplanets.”