TOI-1227 b is one of the youngest transiting exoplanets discovered (as of September 2022), alongside K2-33b and HIP 67522 b. The exoplanet TOI-1227 b is about 11±2 million years old ^[a] and currently 9.6  R_🜨 large. It will become a 3-5 R_🜨 planet in about 1 billion years, because the planet is still contracting. TOI-1227 b orbits its host star every 27.36 days. ^[1]

Characteristics

TOI-1227 b has a size that is 85% that of Jupiter, or 9.6 times that of Earth. No other Jupiter-sized planet was detected around mid- to late M-dwarfs, despite the deep transits such a planet would create. The researchers find that the planet is still hot from its formation and this heat, combined with a hydrogen-dominated primary atmosphere makes the atmosphere of TOI-1227 b inflated. Evolutionary models suggest that TOI-1227 b will eventually evolve into a sub-Neptune within the next billion years. ^[1]

Future research

Radial velocity follow-up to determine the mass of TOI-1227 b is not possible in the optical, but might be possible in the near-infrared. A less challenging follow-up would be the measurement of the Spin-Orbit-Alignment via the Rossiter–McLaughlin effect. ^[1]

Host star

TOI-1227 was first identified as a pre-main-sequence star (PMS star) with the Gaia satellite. ^{[4] [5] [6]} Without this prior identification as a PMS star the exoplanet signal of TOI-1227 b would have been disregarded as an eclipsing binary due to the V-shape of the transit signal. ^[1]

The star is located north of the globular cluster NGC 4372, but it is much closer to earth than this cluster of stars, at a distance of about 101 parsecs (330 light-years). ^[1] NGC 4372 is 5,800 parsecs (19,000 ly) away. ^[7]

The host star TOI-1227 is part of a subgroup of the Lower Centaurus Crux OB association, sometimes called B, ^[6] A0 ^[4] and called Musca group by the scientists that discovered TOI-1227 b. This group was called Musca after the constellation Musca in which most of its members are located. ^[1]

TOI-1227 has a spectral type of M4.5V to M5V, a mass 17% of the Sun and a radius 56% of the Sun. The host star is relative faint for a TOI with a visual magnitude of about 17. ^[1] The right ascension of 12^h 27^m 4.31^s and the declination −72° 27′ 6.5″ implies that it is located in the Musca constellation. ^{[2] [c]} The host star shows Lithium in its atmosphere, which should be depleted within 10-200 million years for M-dwarfs. ^[1]

References