A hot Jupiter has been discovered orbiting a rare star

Since its launch on April 18, 2018, the TESS satellite has discovered more than 8,000 exoplanets in the universe, and 765 of them have been confirmed. And recently, a team of astronomers based in California and led by Joshua D. Simon has confirmed the existence of an exoplanet orbiting TOI-7169.

Located about 1,477 light-years from Earth, it is a metal-poor star of spectral type G3V. But in its light curve, astronomers have spotted a transit signal. Thus, by conducting further studies, they found that this exoplanet is a hot Jupiter with a radius of 1.47 times that of Jupiter.

With a mass of about 0.41 times that of Jupiter, it orbits its star in just 3.44 days, which is very fast. And that is why this discovery is surprising, because stars of this type are not expected to host planets. However, in this stellar system, the exoplanet TOI-7169 b is located extremely close to its star.

Furthermore, this star is also one of the oldest of its kind. Indeed, it is estimated to be about 12.3 billion years old, which is older than the Sun. And by going further, it has a radius about 1.5 times that of the Sun and a mass equivalent to 0.88 times that of the Sun. Nevertheless, despite this major discovery, further studies are needed to understand this type of star.