Nasa has found three new planets – including a kind of world unseen in our own solar system.
The mysterious planet, known as TOI-270, is a “missing link” world and one that could be a huge gift to researchers looking for alien worlds, they said.
The three planets are orbiting around a star that is only 73 light years away from us. That makes them among the closest exoplanets ever found, as well as being among the smallest, and means that astronomers got an especially good view of the worlds.
They were discovered by researchers using Nasa’s Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). That was shot into space in 2018, and has been scanning the universe for stars and planets that could support alien life.
TOI-270 is a rocky super-Earth, which is slightly bigger than our planet. That makes it a “missing link” – sitting between the smaller rocky worlds like our own Earth or Mars, and the much larger gaseous planets such as Saturn and Jupiter.
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A coronal mass ejection as seen by the Chandra Observatory. This is the first time that Chandra has detected this phenomenon from a star other than the Sun
NASA
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A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launches from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida
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Star clusters Cepheus B (top-right section) and Cepheus C (mid-left) as captured by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope
NASA/JPL-Caltech
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An unexpected eruption by the Raikoke Volcano on the Kuril Islands as captured from the International Space Station
NASA
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Jupiter as captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
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A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is seen shortly after launch
NASA / Joel Kowsky
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The Coma Galaxy Cluster as captured by NASA’s Chandra Observatory, a telescope that captures x-ray emissions in space
NASA/CXC/University of Chicago
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Venus (bottom middle) is seen in the distance as the sun rises over earth as seen from the International Space Station
NASA
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Aurora Australis as seen from the International Space Station
NASA
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A galactic storm rages in the Teacup galaxy
NASA
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The galaxy Messier 59 as seen by the Hubble Telescope
NASA / ESA
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A Russian Soyuz MS-11 space capsule carrying astronauts returning from the International Space Station lands in the steppes of south-east Kazakhstan
NASA / Bill Ingalls
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The galaxy NGC 7773 as captured by the Hubble Telescope
NASA / ESA
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Tumultuous clouds in Jupiter’s northern hemisphere
NASA
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Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula as seen from space
NASA
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A coronal mass ejection as seen by the Chandra Observatory. This is the first time that Chandra has detected this phenomenon from a star other than the Sun
NASA
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A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launches from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida
NASA / Joel Kowsky
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Star clusters Cepheus B (top-right section) and Cepheus C (mid-left) as captured by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope
NASA/JPL-Caltech
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An unexpected eruption by the Raikoke Volcano on the Kuril Islands as captured from the International Space Station
NASA
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Jupiter as captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
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A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is seen shortly after launch
NASA / Joel Kowsky
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The Coma Galaxy Cluster as captured by NASA’s Chandra Observatory, a telescope that captures x-ray emissions in space
NASA/CXC/University of Chicago
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Venus (bottom middle) is seen in the distance as the sun rises over earth as seen from the International Space Station
NASA
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Aurora Australis as seen from the International Space Station
NASA
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A galactic storm rages in the Teacup galaxy
NASA
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The galaxy Messier 59 as seen by the Hubble Telescope
NASA / ESA
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A Russian Soyuz MS-11 space capsule carrying astronauts returning from the International Space Station lands in the steppes of south-east Kazakhstan
NASA / Bill Ingalls
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The galaxy NGC 7773 as captured by the Hubble Telescope
NASA / ESA
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Tumultuous clouds in Jupiter’s northern hemisphere
NASA
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Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula as seen from space
NASA
Researchers hope to use the planet to understand why there are so few worlds of that size, as well as illuminating how the planets in our solar system were found.
“TOI-270 will soon allow us to study this ‘missing link’ between rocky Earth-like planets and gas-dominant mini-Neptunes, because here all of these types formed in the same system,” said lead researcher Maximilian Gunther, from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Alongside that planet are two gaseous worlds that are roughly twice the size of our planet. One of those, the furthest from the star, is thought to sit in the temperature range that could allow it to support alien life – but its atmosphere is expected to be so thick and dense that it stores lots of heat, and the surface is probably too warm.
Scientists hope to learn more about the relatively nearby worlds.
“TOI-270 is a true Disneyland for exoplanet science, and one of the prime systems TESS was set out to discover,” Gunther continued.
“It is an exceptional laboratory for not one, but many reasons – it really ticks all the boxes.”
