Surprising ‘forbidden planet’ discovered outside our solar system

Astronomers have found an unusually large planet orbiting a small star, located about 280 light-years from Earth.

The unexpected size of the newly discovered world, called TOI 5205b, has led researchers to call it the “forbidden planet.”

The planet-hunting mission, launched in 2018, surveys the light of the nearest and brightest stars to spot dips in starlight, which suggests those stars have planets orbiting them. The TESS mission has found thousands of potential planets.

The exoplanet orbits a red dwarf star called TOI-5205, which is about 40% the size and mass of our sun, and about 5,660 degrees Fahrenheit (3,127 degrees Celsius) in temperature compared with the sun’s blazing average of 9,980 F (5,527 C).

New type of salty ice may exist on extraterrestrial ocean moons

The mysterious red streaks crisscrossing the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa may be the result of a newly discovered kind of salty ice.

Europa has long intrigued scientists because the moon has a subsurface ocean beneath a thick shell of ice. Plumes of water have been known to erupt from cracks in the ice shell, releasing the contents of the moon’s alien ocean into space.

Ocean worlds like Europa are the best bet for finding evidence of life outside of Earth, according to scientists.

The chemical signature of Europa’s surface red streaks, thought to be a frozen mix of water and salts, seemed unusual because it didn’t match any known substance on Earth.

Scientists determined in 2019 that the yellow portions of E