Neptune-like planet found in habitable zone of double star system

Astronomers found a exoplanet similar to Neptune within a system that has two stars like the Sun — which revolve around themselves — but orbiting just one of them. The discovery challenged the standards used to study the formation of planetary systems and how they remain stable over time.

TOI 4633 c is located in the habitable zone of its system — TOI 4633 — which could mean that it has water on its surface. However, it was detected that the exoplanet has a large and dense atmosphere, ruling out this possibility. Further investigation of this system may be important to understand the formations that have two stars and unusual orbits.

Similar to our Neptune, although smaller, the exoplanet was discovered using Tess (Transiting Exoplanet Research Satellite) and astronomers were able to define that its orbit is 272 days — longer than the average of other bodies found outside the Solar System .

Even though it is in a two-star system, it only orbits one of them, which challenges the idea that our system was a standard format for others.

Using another form of detection, astronomers discovered that TOI 4633 c may have a sibling with an orbit that lasts 34 days. Unlike the analysis method for other exoplanets, which are identified when they pass in front of a star and create a kind of shadow, this one was detected by the change in the star's light, which changes back and forth as the body's gravity in orbit it pulls it sideways.

The combination of an oval orbit made by the unusual approach of the stars and the exoplanet that has a long path around just one of them makes TOI 4633 a suitable system for scientists to test ideas about unusual orbital configurations and how they manage to remain stable over billions of years.