Scientists discover four 'hot Jupiter' exoplanets orbiting dwarf stars

(Representational image)

New Delhi: As scientists attempt to gain a better understanding of the solar system and search for those existing beyond our own, they have often made incredible discoveries, especially those in the form of numerous exoplanets that mimic the ones in our own solar system.

In another such discovery, scientists have four new 'hot Jupiter' extrasolar planets orbiting dwarf stars.

Using telescopes of the Hungarian-made Automated Telescope Network-South (HATSouth) Exoplanet Survey, the team observed four G-type dwarf stars known as HATS-50, HATS-51, HATS-52 and HATS-53.

"We report the discovery of four close-in transiting exoplanets (HATS-50b through HATS-53b), discovered using the HATSouth three-continent network of homogeneous and automated telescopes," researchers led by Thomas Henning of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany wrote in the journal arXiv.Org.

All the four planets belong to the class of exoplanets known as 'hot Jupiters.'

Objects of this type are similar in characteristics to Jupiter, with orbital periods of less than 10 days, 'Phys.Org' reported.

They have high surface temperatures, as they orbit their parent stars very closely.

HATS-50b is the smallest and least massive alien world of all of the newly discovered exoplanets.

It has a radius of about 1.13 Jupiter radii and a mass of about 0.39 Jupiter radii. The system is located some 2,300 light years away from the Earth.

With a radius of about 1.41 Jupiter radii, HATS-51b is the largest exoworld among the four newly found extrasolar worlds.

It has an orbital period of 3.35 days, and is located about 1,560 light years away.

(With PTI inputs)