https://phys.org/news/2021-10-astronome ... iting.html
by Tomasz Nowakowski , Phys.org
By analyzing the data from the TESS-Keck Survey (TKS), an international team of astronomers reports the detection of two almost identically sized sub-Neptune exoplanets orbiting a nearby star. The newly found alien worlds, designated HD 63935 b and HD 63935 c, are about three times larger than the Earth. The finding is detailed in a paper published October 13 on the arXiv pre-print server.
NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is conducting a survey of about 200,000 of the brightest stars near the sun with the aim of searching for transiting exoplanets. So far, it has identified over 4,500 candidate exoplanets (TESS Objects of Interest, or TOI), of which 161 have been confirmed so far.
TKS performs precise radial velocity (PRV) follow-up observations of TESS planet candidates using the Keck telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii and the Automated Planet Finder (APF) telescope at Lick Observatory, California. It is the largest collaborative effort in the northern hemisphere to measure precise masses and orbits of over 100 TESS-identified exoplanets.
As part of TKS, a group of astronomers led by Nicholas Scarsdale of the University of California, Santa Cruz, has now confirmed that two sub-Neptune are transiting a nearby bright sun-like star known as HD 63935 (other designations HIP 38374 and TIC 453211454).
"In this paper, we present the confirmation of the subNeptune planets HD 63935 b and c," the researchers wrote.