Indian Scientists Discover New Exoplanet

• 31 May 2023

Recently, an international team of scientists from India, Germany, Switzerland and the USA discovered a new Jupiter-size exoplanet with the highest density known till this date.

The key findings are:

• Telescope: The discovery of the massive exoplanet was made using the indigenously made PRL Advanced Radial-velocity Abu-sky Search spectrograph (PARAS) at the 1.2 m telescope of the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) at its Gurushikhar Observatory in Mt. Abu by measuring the mass of the planet precisely.
• The Star: The newly discovered exoplanet is found around the star called TOI4603 or HD 245134.
• The Planet: Using PARAS, the scientists discovered it as a planet by measuring the mass of the secondary body and hence, the planet is called TOI 4603b or HD 245134b.
• Location: It is located 731 light years away.
• It orbits a sub-giant F-type star TOI4603 every 7.24 days.
• It orbits very close to its host star at a distance less than 1/10th the distance between our Sun and Earth.
• Mass: The new exoplanet has a mass 13 times that of Jupiter.

The detection of the new exoplanet provides valuable insights into the formation, migration, and evolution mechanisms of massive exoplanets.