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19h ago
Astronomers spot super-Earth circling a star 83 light-years away
- TOI-1080 b is a temperate rocky super-Earth with a 3.97-day orbit around a nearby red dwarf star.
- TOI-1080 b likely has a rocky composition and a radius about 1.2 times that of Earth.
- Its equilibrium temperature is around 368 K, placing it in a warm, temperate range for rocky exoplanets.
- TOI-1080 is an inactive M4V red dwarf about five times smaller than the Sun and roughly 0.16 solar masses.
- The host star TOI-1080 is likely 5–7 billion years old, suggesting a long-lived system.
- Additional planets may exist, but current data place strong limits on other transiting bodies.
- For longer periods up to 19 days, planets larger than about 1.4 Earth radii can also be ruled out in the system.
- TESS observations drove the discovery, with follow-up ground-based observations confirming the planetary signal.
- The study raises the possibility of a CO2-dominated or oxygen-rich atmosphere, pending further atmospheric studies.
- The discovery adds to the growing list of temperate rocky planets around M-dwarfs, a common site for multi-planet systems.
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