NASA's TESS exoplanet-hunting space telescope wraps up primary mission

The article identified a specific TESS exoplanet for study. "TESS' primary mission yielded many exciting finds, including an Earth-sized planet called TOI 700 d that orbits in its star's habitable zone, the range of distances where liquid water could be stable on a world's surface. But the extended mission may be even more fruitful, because the TESS team has made some improvements over the past two years."

TOI 700 d is an interesting exoplanet. 'The First Habitable Zone Earth-Sized Planet From TESS II: Spitzer Confirms TOI-700 d', https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020arXiv200100954R/abstract, January 2020. "We present Spitzer 4.5 μ m observations of the transit of TOI-700 d, a habitable zone Earth-sized planet in a multiplanet system transiting a nearby M-dwarf star...TOI-700 d has a radius of 1.144+0.062−0.061R⊕ and orbits within its host star's conservative habitable zone with a period of 37.42 days ( Teq∼269 K). TOI-700 also hosts two small inner planets (R b = 1.037+0.065−0.064R⊕ & R c = 2.65+0.16−0.15R⊕ ) with periods of 9.98 and 16.05 days, respectively. Our Spitzer observations confirm the TESS detection of TOI-700 d and remove any remaining doubt that it is a genuine planet. We analyze the Spitzer light curve combined with the 11 sectors of TESS observations and a transit of TOI-700 c from the LCOGT network to determine the full system parameters. Although studying the atmosphere of TOI-700 d is not likely feasible with upcoming facilities, it may be possible to measure the mass of TOI-700 d using state-of-the-art radial velocity instruments (expected RV semi-amplitude of ∼ 70 cm/s)."

The host star, TOI-700 (red dwarf) is a multiple planet system (3 known), tightly packed too. http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/toi-700_d/, and https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/overview/TOI-700
 
  • Like
Reactions: Torbjorn Larsson

Latest posts