Astronomers Stunned By Exoplanet System With Bizarre Orbital Pattern

Astronomers have made a groundbreaking discovery, unveiling an exoplanet system that defies conventional solar system rules. At the American Astronomical Society’s 247th meeting in Phoenix, Federico Noguer, an undergraduate at Arizona State University (ASU), presented findings on the star TOI-1873, located approximately 600 light-years from Earth. This star hosts three large planets, each slightly smaller than Neptune, discovered using data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and a volunteer science project called Planet Hunters TESS, as reported by Yahoo News. The two innermost planets have orbital periods of about seven and 25 days, respectively. Based on these findings, astronomers expected the third planet to orbit its host star every 90 days.

However, observations revealed a staggering 900 days had passed between each of the three times TESS detected the third planet. This unusual spacing suggests the planet’s orbital period could be as short as 128 days or as long as 900 days. Molly Simon, an astronomer at ASU, described the system’s configuration as “weird spacing.” Noguer noted that obtaining further observations will be challenging, as even if the shortest possible period is confirmed, astronomers will have to wait 128 days ← →