The exoplanet is called TOI-1452 b and orbits two stars in the not-so-distant constellation Draco, about 100 light-years from Earth.
NASA’s TESS space telescope, which regularly surveys the sky for possible distant planets, first signaled the floating rock, but it was Charles Cadieux of the Université de Montréal and his team who confirmed the planet’s size and radius. It took them more than 50 hours to verify that what they were looking at was a planet about five times the size of Earth.
Further observation confirmed that although this planet is much larger than Earth, it is much less dense, suggesting that water could make up a decent proportion of its mass.
“So it looks a lot like a planet that could potentially be a water world, something rocky, with a big ocean on it,” said René Doyon, a professor at the University of Montreal who guided Cadieux on his research.
Although water covers 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, it makes up less than 1 percent of its mass. By comparison, researchers believe TOI-1452 b could be 30 percent water, similar to Jupiter’s moons Ganymede and Callisto and Saturn’s moons Titan and Enceladus.
“So this is a very strange world that we have never encountered before,” said Doyon, who is also director of the Observatoire du Mont-Mégantic (OMM) in the eastern cities.
René Doyon is a professor at the University of Montreal and director of the Observatoire du Mont-Mégantic. (Joe Lofaro/CTV News) The observatory’s high-resolution PESTO telescope played a key role in the discovery, confirming the planet’s radius and that it orbits a binary solar system. Time passes quickly on this planet – a year is only 11 days. Canadian technology played an even bigger role as the team used SPIRou, an instrument partially designed in Canada that measures low-mass stars. Further analysis is needed to confirm more features of the exoplanet, but Doyon said he is proud of what his team has determined so far. “The ultimate goal is to find life elsewhere, and whenever you hear about water, it’s essential for life to struggle, at least as we know it on Earth,” he said. “On Earth, there’s evidence that life may have started deep in the oceans… and we know there’s a lot of life in there, even animal life. And so, who knows, even though you don’t have continents, these ocean worlds may to have life, struggling deep in the oceans and perhaps influencing their atmosphere.” The Observatoire du Mont-Mégantic, in eastern Quebec, has a 1.6-meter telescope that helped confirm this discovery of TOI-1452 b. (Source: Emir Chouchane/University of Montreal) For now, it looks promising that astronomers will be able to confirm this. The James Webb Space Telescope will be able to make further analyzes year-round because of its position in the sky and proximity to Earth. Cadieux and his team published their findings in The Astronomical Journal on August 12. Researchers who contributed to the discovery are Mykhaylo Plotnykov, Guillaume Hébrard, Farbod Jahandar, Étienne Artigau, Diana Valencia, Neil J. Cook, Eder Martioli and Thomas Vandal. Artist’s rendering of the exoplanet TOI-1452 b, a small planet that may be entirely covered in a deep ocean. (Source: Benoit Gougeon/Université de Montréal)
