A team of scientists from the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad have discovered a sub-Saturn or super-Neptune size planet around a sun-like star, according to a statement released by Indian Space Research Organisation on Thursday.
The Physical Research Laboratory is a unit of Department of Space that carries out research in areas of physics, space and atmospheric sciences, astronomy, and planetary and geo-sciences.
The scientists found that the host star is about 600 light years away from Earth and the planet goes around the star in 19.5 days. The name of the star is EPIC 211945201 or K2-236 and the planet is EPIC 211945201b or K2-236b.
The surface temperature of the planet was found to be around 600 degrees Celsius and was found to be seven times nearer to its star, in comparison with Earth-sun distance. The discovery of the planet is important in understanding the formation of similar super-Neptune or sub-Saturn kind of planets, that are too close to the host star, the statement said.
The discovery was made by measuring the mass of the planet using the indigenously designed ‘PRL Advance Radial-velocity Abu-Sky Search’ spectrograph integrated with a 1.2m telescope at PRL’s Gurushikar Observatory in Rajasthan’s Mount Abu.