A mysterious exoplanet just 138 light-years from Earth could be in the process of transforming.
, and scientists are looking for more, using the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher on the European Southern Observatory's 3.6-meter telescope at La Silla Observatory in Chile, following up on candidates identified by NASA's space-based exoplanet-hunting telescope TESS.
If these transits occur with regularity, astronomers can easily infer the presence of an orbiting body and determine its period. This is what HARPS can measure. As the star wiggles towards and away from us, the wavelength of its light changes, compressing when the star moves closer and stretching as the star moves away. How much the star moves depends on the exoplanet's mass, so astronomers can calculate that, too.
That means the exoplanet's density is around 3.27 grams per cubic centimeter. That's considerably less dense than Earth's 5.51 grams per cubic centimeter and implies that the composition of HD-207496b is not entirely rocky. So the researchers performed modeling to see what the world is made of.
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