Current Affairs - Science - Discussion

The Transmitting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) of NASA has discovered 3 new planets which are the smallest and nearest known to date. The planets include a small, rocky super-Earth and 2 Sub-neptunes orbiting a dwarf star just 73 light-years away from our earth. A paper describing the system was published in the journal Nature Astronomy. The members present in the planetary system are a dwarf star which is 40% smaller than the size of the sun and the three exoplanets which are named as TOI 270b, TOI 270c, TOI 270d orbiting the star every 3.4 days 5.7 days and 11.4 days respectively. The TOI 270c and TOI 270d are Neptune like planets which are half the size of our icy giants( Uranus and Neptune). The innermost planet is the TOI 270b and is expected to be 25% bigger than earth.