Astronomers have found that two recently discovered “super-Earths” outside the solar system lack atmospheres, uncovering the fact that one of these worlds is one of the most massive super-Earths discovered to date.
The extrasolar planets, or exoplanets, orbit their red dwarf parent stars in extremely close proximity, meaning that they complete an orbit within 24 hours. The worlds offer astronomers a unique opportunity to investigate how atmospheres form around rocky, or terrestrial, planets like Earth.
TOI-1634b and TOI-1685b both orbit different red dwarf stars and are located 115 and 123 light-years away from Earth respectively. The exoplanets were both discovered in 2021 by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).
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