Sibling Stars Found with Teenage Exoplanets

Four new teenage planets were found orbiting two separate but related stars in data collected by the TESS spacecraft, adding to the theory of planetary formation.

IMAGE: Short-period planets, or those with orbits shorter than one day, are rare. Potential lava world TOI 1807 b, illustrated here, is the youngest example yet discovered. CREDIT: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KBRwyle)

At first glance, this story was interesting because more exoplanets were found, but we’ve been announcing new exoplanets almost steadily for the last decade-plus. Digging a little deeper, this story involves a new paper published in The Astronomical Journal about four new exoplanets that were found orbiting a pair of stars. These stars are related, the planets are teenagers, and they are all giving us more information about a stage of planetary formation we don’t yet understand.

I know. I say all the time that we’re never going to completely understand planetary formation. But with every story that comes out with new information, I’m beginning to think I will be proven wrong. And that’s wonderful.

What makes these stars and their planets so special? According to lead author Christina Hedges: The planets in both systems are in a transitional, or teenage, phase of their life cycle. They’re not newborns, but they’re also not settled down. Learning more about planets in this teen stage will ultimately help us understand older planets in other systems.

The two stars are TOI 2076 and TOI 1807, they are K-type stars or dwarf stars oranger…