Madyson Barber, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was studying young systems transiting through space when she made a rather unexpected discovery.
Closer to the stars. Madyson Barber, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, used data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite to observe the brightness of stars over time. During one of her observations, the young woman made an improbable discovery.
Indeed, she noticed some “small drops” in brightness, indicating that a “transiting” planet could pass close to Earth. “The discovery of a planet appeared,” she told ABC News on November 21.
The planet, named IRAS 04125+2902 b, has an estimated age of 3 million years, which is considered “young” for planets, according to the student. The Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old and took between 10 and 20 million years to form. The next youngest known planet is about 10 million years old, according to this data.
“It’s about the same as a 10-day-old baby on a human scale,” she added.
Nicknamed “TIDYE-1b”
Dubbed “TIDYE-1b” by researchers, the new planet would have an orbital period of 8.83 days, according to an article published in Nature.
Its radius is approximately 10.7 times greater than that of Earth and its mass is approximately 30% that of Jupiter. TIDYE-1b currently orbits a star of the same age, called IRAS 04125+2902.
Astronomers noted some unusual features of the star, which is located relatively close to Earth, 160 parsecs, or 522 light years away, the researchers said. “There's not much we can say about the planet at this point,” Madyson Barber said.
A still mysterious planet
Currently, researchers are only 95% sure of the measurements they've taken for the planet's upper mass limit, and they hypothesize that the planet's true mass is actually a lot smaller.
“Since we don't know a lot of young systems in transit, it's really important that we research more so we can get a better idea of what this formation and evolution looks like, so we can better understand how our own household is developing. is trained and has evolved,” said the student.
Note that this is the third planet discovered by Madyson Barber, and probably the most significant: “It is certainly our greatest discovery, because it is the youngest system in transit. Our perspective of the universe – it is so big and there is so much we can learn. Looking outward to learn about our own home, where we came from and where we might go.”
