'Hot Jupiter' Exoplanet Orbiting a Sun-Like Star Discovered
Artist’s impression of a "hot Jupiter". Credit: Ricardo Cardoso Reis (CAUP)
Astronomers have detected a so-called "hot Jupiter" exoplanet transiting a distant sun-like star located some 1,800 light years from the Earth. The newly discovered planet, designated EPIC 220504338b, was found using NASA's prolonged Kepler mission known as K2. The findings are presented in a paper published Nov. 23 on arXiv.org. EPIC 220504338b was first spotted by K2 as a planetary candidate during the spacecraft's Campaign 8 in mid-2016. To confirm it as a planet, a team of researchers led by Nestor Espinoza of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile conducted follow-up observations using ESO's Fibre-fed, Extended Range, Échelle Spectrograph (FEROS) at La Silla Observatory in Chile.
FEROS observational campaign was carried out in August and November 2016.
According to the research, EPIC 220504338b is about 10 percent smaller than Jupiter and approximately 30 percent more massive. The exoworld orbits its 6-billion-year-old sun-like parent star every 5.8 days. Notably, with a density of nearly 2.1 gr/cm3 and an equilibrium temperature of about 1,160 K, the planet is one of the densest "hot Jupiters" below two Jupiter masses known to date.
Phys.org
