International astronomers discover new planet 'LTT 9779b'

LTT 9779b orbits its stars 60 times closer than Earth orbits the sun. - Photo: University of Chile

THE international astronomical team, including researchers from the University of Cambridge, unveiled the discovery of a new class of planets previously called 'Ultrahot Neptune' in the solar system on Monday.

Citing a joint study conducted by the University of Cambridge and the University of De Chile in the journal Nature Astronomy , the giant planet orbits its star 60 times closer than Earth orbits the sun.

The findings were recorded through the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satelllite (TESS) which is a system used for space observation.

The planet named 'LTT 9779b' is filled with metal with temperatures up to 1,700 degrees Celsius.

Located about 260 light-years from the solar system, the planet, which has a nine percent atmosphere, is 28 times larger than Earth.

According to Professor James Jenkins of the Department of Astronomy from the University of De Chile, the findings are very historic for his team.

"The discovery of the LTT 9779b so early in the TESS mission was a great surprise and proved previous studies to be successful.

"A large number of transit decisions carried out within a day usually find only binary stars and not new planets," he said.

The planet was discovered after a week of observations conducted on the second sector of the 26 TESS observation sectors across the sky.

"We chose this planet to be observed after receiving a warning from TESS because its orbital period is very short.

"After examining the indentation of the light, we found that it is a good candidate for the next week's observation campaign using the Radial Speed ​​Accuracy Planet Finder (HARPS) spectrograph.

"We plan our observations carefully, to maximize the use of spectrographs and orbital samples," said Matias Diaz, co-author of the journal Nature Astronomy , also from the University of Chile.

Meanwhile, the Cambridge Astronomical Department, which is also part of the study team, also used the Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) telescope to make observations following the LT9779b journey. It is to confirm the nature and system of the planet.