Indian scientists have made an exciting discovery in space – they found a new planet, TOI-6651b! This planet is much bigger than Earth, about five times larger in size, and it weighs around 60 times more than our planet. It circles around a star similar to our Sun.
This new planet was found using a special tool called PARAS-2 at the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in India. What’s interesting is that TOI-6651b is located in a part of space called the “Neptunian desert,” where planets like this one are rare.
Scientists are studying this to understand more about how planets form and why there aren’t many planets of this size in this area.
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This is the fourth time Indian scientists have found a new planet, showing that India is doing great work in exploring space.
This planet goes around its star, TOI-6651, very quickly. It takes just over 5 days for TOI-6651b to complete one orbit, which means its “year” is much shorter than ours.
What’s different about this planet is its orbit shape. It’s not a perfect circle but more like an oval. Also, it’s made up of heavy stuff like rocks and iron, with only a bit of lighter gases like hydrogen and helium around it. This makes it very dense.
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TOI-6651b is close to its star, which is a bit bigger and hotter than our Sun. Because of this closeness, some of the planet’s atmosphere might have been lost due to the heat from the star.
The discovery of this planet doesn’t just add to the list of known planets; it also helps scientists understand how planets form and change over time. It’s a big deal for India’s contribution to space science.
