There are three fewer known exoplanets: they are too big for MIT

Discovered by the Kepler space telescope NASAAnd the They are classified as planets. But the classification attributed to three of them – perhaps even four – was wrong: in all likelihood it is little starswe learn from a study conducted by astronomers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and published in Astronomical Journal.

Researchers got updated and more accurate measurements of some celestial bodies from the European Space Agency’s Gaia observatory and found that at least three of them, trivial They are too big to be planets. The three most recent estimates, known as Kepler-854b, Kepler-840b and Kepler-699b, attribute it to between two and four times the size of Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system.

Most of the exoplanets – notes the first author of the study Prajwal Niraula – are no larger than Jupiter, they are much smaller. Being twice the size already raises the suspicion, an object that exceeds its size simply cannot be a planet, and that’s what we ascertained.

Fourth planet outside the solar system The subject of “Astronomical Investigations” is Kepler-747b: Existence Almost twice the size of Jupiter (1.8 times), it could be among the largest planets ever identified. However, he is very far from what was hitherto considered a star, thus receiving it small amount of light which may not be sufficient to support it due to its large size.

Thus, the exoplanet Kepler-747b is suspicious case, to be evaluated more carefully, but the odds that the star, like the other three, will, in fact, be not insignificant. MIT thinks so There are not many other errors Among the celestial bodies classified as planets. Such corrections are important, as they lead to more reliable data on the basis of which more accurate studies of exoplanets can be produced. Which showed, as at the end of January, that it can teach us something.