Astronomers discover planet where year lasts 13 hours

By Alimat Aliyev

An international team of astronomers has discovered a new exoplanet that orbits a red dwarf star every 13.7 hours, Azernews reports, citing the Astrophysical Journal.

An exoplanet called Wolf 327 b was classified as a "super-earth with an ultrashort period." It is slightly larger and about 2.5 times more massive than Earth, and its density is 7.24 g/cm3. The discovery was made using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Research Satellite (TESS). So far, he has discovered about 7,000 potential exoplanets. The existence of 415 of them has already been scientifically proven.

Scientists suggest that Wolf 327 b is a rocky world, similar in internal composition to Mercury. It probably has a large iron core surrounded by a thin mantle layer. The presence of an insignificant hydrogen-helium atmosphere is also possible.

The red dwarf star around which Wolf 327 b orbits is located 93 light-years from the Sun. Its age is estimated at 4.1 billion years, and its size and mass are only 40 percent of the solar years.
Scientists have suggested that there are other planets in this system as well. But they have yet to be identified.