Sometimes, a story isn’t so much about the science done but about who did the science. That’s the case with our next story. It’s about the discovery of yet another multi-planet system, which isn’t terribly exciting these days, except the discovery was made by a pair of high school students.

As part of the Science Research Mentoring Program (SRMP) run by Harvard and MIT, 16-year-old Kartik Pinglé and 18-year-old Jasmine Wright worked with postdoc Tansu Daylan to analyze data from NASA’s TESS. They looked at TOI-1233, which is a Sun-like star called HD 108236 about 200 light-years away from Earth, and they studied the dips in the light caused by potential exoplanets orbiting that star.

Much to their surprise and delight, they found four planets orbiting TOI-1233. Per the press release: Three of the planets are considered “sub-Neptunes,” gaseous planets that are smaller than, but similar to our own solar system’s Neptune. It takes between 6 and 19.5 days for each of them to orbit around TOI-1233. The fourth planet is labeled a “super-Earth” for its large size and rockiness; it orbits around the star in just under four days.

The results of this research were published this week in The Astronomical Journal with Pinglé and Wright as co-authors. The SRMP was founded in 2016, and provides about twelve students a year, mostly underrepresented minorities, with a paid research job. Pinglé is currently a junior in high school and contemplating majoring in applied mathematics or astrophysics. Wright was recently accepted into a five-year astrophysics master’s program in Scotland. Congratulations to you both and good luck in your future careers. We expect big things.

More Information

Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian press release

“TESS Discovery of a Super-Earth and Three Sub-Neptunes Hosted by the Bright, Sun-like Star HD 108236,” Tansu Daylan et al., 2021 January 25, The Astronomical Journal