Three new planets have been found in a star system just 73 light years away from Earth — including two planets that may be 'missing links' in planetary formation.
Orbiting around an old M-dwarf star known as TOI-270, the trio are among the smallest and nearest exoplanets scientists have spotted to-date.
The system has a rocky so-called super-Earth, which is slightly larger than our planet, along with two gaseous planets that are smaller than Neptune but twice Earth's size.
In our solar system, there are no such planets that intermediate in size between Earth and Neptune — so these 'missing links' could shine light on planet formation.
The bodies were discovered using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which launched in 2018 to finding new worlds around neighbouring stars.
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Three new planets have been found in a star system just 73 light years away from Earth — including two planets that may be 'missing links' in planetary formation
The newly-discovered planets have been described by astrophysicist Maximilian Günther of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — which helped to develop TESS — and his colleagues.
However, the system is of interest in its own right, with two of the bodies being a sort-of 'missing link' planet that we do not have in our own solar system.
Around the Sun we have rocky planets — like Earth, Mars, Mercury and Venus — and giant, gaseous planets — such as Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn and Uranus — but nothing that lies in-between these two types.
'TOI-270 will soon allow us to study this "missing link" between rocky Earth-like planets and gas-dominant mini-Neptunes, because here all of these types formed in the same system,' said Dr Günther.
The team hope to determine whether rocky planets like Earth and massive icy worlds develop along the same formation path, or through different processes.
The star, TOI-270, was so-named by the researchers for being the 270th TESS 'object-of-interest' found by the Earth-orbiting detector.
The closest in of its three planets — dubbed TOI-270 b — takes a little over three days to orbit its star, with TOI-270 c taking 5.7 days, and TOI-270 d 11.4 days.
While the temperatures found at the very top of TOI-270 d's could potentially support life, the atmosphere itself is thought to be so thick and dense it would create an intense greenhouse effect, making it an unlikely host for water and life.
The researchers believe there there is a good chance that more planets might lie further out in the star system — some of which might potentially lie the star's habitable zone.
The three newly-found planets line up in what astronomers dub a 'resonant chain', meaning that the ratio of their orbits are close to whole integers — specifically 3:5 for the inner pair and 2:1 for the outer pair.
'For TOI-270, these planets line up like pearls on a string,' Dr Günther said.
'That's a very interesting thing, because it lets us study their dynamical behaviour.'
'And you can almost expect, if there are more planets, the next one would be somewhere further out, at another integer ratio.'
Orbiting around a star known as TOI-270, the trio are among the smallest and nearest exoplanets scientists have spotted to-date
TESS was launched on April 18 last year and can observe almost the entire sky.
The satellite looks for dips in light that can betray the presence of a planet passing — or 'transiting' — in front of its host star.
In April, TESS found its first Earth-sized planet orbiting a star around 52 light years away —although surface temperatures of more than 752°F (400°C) have ruled out any chance of finding life on the planet.
TESS, pictured in this artists' impression, was launched on April 18 last year and can observe almost the entire sky. The satellite looks for dips in light that can betray the presence of a planet passing — or 'transiting' — in front of its host star
As the old host star's activity is relatively quiet, the system is well suited for further analysis, with the researchers planning to focus other instruments — like the upcoming James Webb Space telescope — on TOI-270.
'TOI-270 is a true Disneyland for exoplanet science, and one of the prime systems TESS was set out to discover,' Dr Günther continued.
'It is an exceptional laboratory for not one, but many reasons – it really ticks all the boxes.'
The full findings of the study were published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
WHAT IS THE TESS SPACECRAFT?
NASA's new 'planet hunter,' set to be Kepler's successor, is equipped with four cameras that will allow it to view 85 per cent of the entire sky, as it searches exoplanets orbiting stars less than 300 light-years away.
By studying objects much brighter than the Kepler targets, it's hoped TESS could uncover new clues on the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe.
Its four wide-field cameras will view the sky in 26 segments, each of which it will observe one by one.
In its first year of operation, it will map the 13 sectors that make up the southern sky.
Then, the following year, it will scour the northern sectors.
'We learned from Kepler that there are more planets than stars in our sky, and now TESS will open our eyes to the variety of planets around some of the closest stars,' said Paul Hertz, Astrophysics Division director at NASA's Headquarters.
'TESS will cast a wider net than ever before for enigmatic worlds whose properties can be probed by NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope and other missions.'
Tess is 5 feet (1.5 meters) wide and is shorter than most adults.
The observatory is 4 feet across (1.2 meters), not counting the solar wings, which are folded for launch, and weighs just 800 pounds (362 kilograms).
NASA says it's somewhere between the size of a refrigerator and a stacked washer and dryer.
Tess will aim for a unique elongated orbit that passes within 45,000 miles of Earth on one end and as far away as the orbit of the moon on the other end.
It will take Tess two weeks to circle Earth.
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News Photo NASA discovers a new Earth-like planet in a star system just 73 light years away
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