A brand-new planet was discovered by citizen scientists and astronomers. Using NASA telescope data the astronomers sighted a Jupiter-sized planet outside our solar system. The research study detailing the planet named TOI-2180 b was published in the Astronomical Journal last week.
Through a “global uniting effort” the astronomers and citizen scientist collaboration allowed the discovery. Nasa’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) was the telescope tool. The astronomers scanned the data with algorithms. And the citizen scientists inspect it with a program called LcTools.
This recently discovered world is located 379 light-years away from Earth. And the “exoplanet” is estimated to have a temperature of around 76° Centigrade which converts to 168.8° Fahrenheit. It is warmer than Earth, but very cold when compared to other newly discovered planets.
New Planet statistics
Tom Jacobs, a former US naval officer, was the first to notice a plot showing starlight from the star TOI-2180. It was seen dimming by less than half a percent over 24-hours. Even such a small dimming can be a strong indicator of an orbiting planet.
