Recent research reveals that one of the oldest stars in the Milky Way galaxy houses a huge, rocky "super-Earth" planet.
Researchers said this exoplanet called TOI-561b is around 50 percent bigger and three times more gigantic than Earth. It whips around its host star in a very close orbit, requiring fewer than 12 hours to perform one lap.
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Given this near proximity, according to a release from the University of California, Riverside, TOI-561b has an average surface temperature of above 3,140 degrees Fahrenheit (1,726 degrees Celsius), which is too extreme to host any life as we know it.
The researchers have discovered that TOI-561b's density is close to that of our planet Earth.
This Super-Earth Isn't Livable
UC Riverside planetary astrophysicist Stephen Kane, who serves as the study co-author, said in a statement that the findings were shocking because the density was supposed to be greater. The findings are compatible with the idea that the Earth is incredibly ancient, according to Kane.
Heavy metals such as iron and magnesium are produced in the cores of large stars through fusion reactions. In the Milky Way and other universes, these components' concentration has developed up over centuries. They said more and more stars pump these resources out and eject them into space as they perish in supernova explosions.
The low density of TOI-561b means that it has comparatively few heavy elements and is thus very ancient. University of Hawaii's postdoctoral fellow Lauren Weiss, the study lead author, said the super-Earth formed maybe 10 billion or so years ago.
Indeed, the host star of the universe, TOI-561, is among a special population of stars found in an area known as the dense galactic disk. In the Milky Way, these stars are considered to have distinctly less heavy elements than normal stars.
How Old is The Super-Earth?
Weiss said in the UC-Riverside statement that TOI-561b is one of the ancient rocky planets yet found. Since its formation 14 billion years ago, the specialist clarified that the cosmos has been producing rocky planets.
Through analyzing observations produced by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the W.M., Weiss and her colleagues identified and characterized TOI-561b Hawaii's Keck Observatory (TOI stands for "TESS Object of Interest.").
The system lies some 280 light-years from Earth and, in addition to TOI-561b, harbors two other identified planets. But these two other planets, unlike TOI-561b, are too huge and not dense enough to be rocky.
In the quote, Kane said that while this unique planet is impossible to be populated today, it could be a bringer of several rocky planets yet to be found near the oldest stars in our galaxy.
The latest observations were reported in the Astronomical Journal on January 11 and were discussed at the 237th AAS Meeting.
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