2 'super-Earth' exoplanets spotted in habitable zone of nearby star

[Admin]

NASA's TESS spacecraft spotted two super-Earth planets as they crossed the face of their star within its 'habitable zone.'

2 'super-Earth' exoplanets spotted in habitable zone of nearby star : Read more

 

[rod]

"This makes the two planets orbiting in the habitable zone of this red dwarf — which have been designated TOI-2095 b and TOI-2095 c, respectively — tantalizing prospects for further investigation by astronomers."

My notes. Using the mass and radius of TOI-2095 b, gravity relative to Earth = 2.6234E+00, escape velocity = 20.24874296 km/s. The exoplanet has a deep gravity well and mean density about 1.1538E+01 g cm^-3.

Using properties for TOI-2095 c, this is another deep gravity well exoplanet reported. Radius = 1.33 rearth, mass = 7.4 mearth. Surface gravity = 4.1825E+00 or 4 g compared to Earth's 1 g. Escape velocity = 26.37249295 km/s, mean density = 1.7289E+01 g cm^-3.

Ref - Two super-Earths at the edge of the habitable zone of the nearby M dwarf TOI-2095, https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.09220, 18-April-2023.

 

[Unclear Engineer]

I always wonder about the "habitable zone" definition when I see stories about massive planets orbiting stars that might blow away their atmospheres, or might not. With "gas giants" making "hot Jupiters" near some such stars, it seems to me that we really need to know what the atmosphere of a planet is like in order to have any idea whether it is habitable for life of the types we currently know anything about. A dense atmosphere on a "super Earth" should probably make such a planet habitable at a greater distance from its star due to greenhouse effects. Or perhaps it could be like Venus, and have too much greenhouse effect to support liquid water on its surface.

 

[iMaxPlanck]

No mention in the article of whether these new finds are tidally locked. Seems like many recently discovered exoplanets are.