Six exoplanets orbiting around a nearby bright star (HD 110067) in the Coma Berenices constellation has been discovered. The planets have radii between that of Earth and Neptune. A study published in Nature has calculated the orbit details, along with estimates of their masses and densities, which offer clues about the formation of the system and compositions of the planets’ atmospheres.
Planets with radii between that of the Earth and Neptune (referred to as ‘sub-Neptunes’) are found in close-in orbits around more than half of all Sun-like stars, but details of their composition, formation and evolution are not well understood. HD 110067 is a bright star in the Coma Berenices constellation (around 100 light-years away), which is visible from Earth’s Northern Hemisphere.
Observations of HD 110067 made by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) in 2020 and 2022 revealed several dips in the star’s brightness, and with additional observations from the ‘CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite’ (CHEOPS) the signals were interpreted as six planets passing in front of the star, report Rafael Luque and colleagues. By studying the three innermost planets, the authors calculated the orbits of all six planets, ranging from around nine days for the innermost planet to around 54 days for the outermost planet.
