August 16, 2022

Artist's concept of a Neptune-sized planet orbiting a class-A star (Image courtesy Steven Giacalone, UC Berkeley)

An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal Letters” reports a study on the exoplanet HD 56414 b, a warm Neptune discovered orbiting an A-type star that has a mass almost twice the Sun’s. A team of researchers used detections conducted by NASA’s TESS space telescope to find a candidate exoplanet that was subsequently verified thanks to follow-up observations conducted with other instruments. This is a rare combination, as these massive stars usually have giant planets like Jupiter or even more massive ones.