TOI-6894, a small red dwarf star with 20 percent of the sun's mass, hosts a large planet named TOI-6894b. Despite previous beliefs that such stars couldn't form large planets, astronomers detected a transit signal confirming TOI-6894b blocks 17 percent of the star's light, suggesting its considerable size. This finding contradicts conventional theories and presents a new cornerstone for understanding giant planet formation. TOI-6894b's radius is slightly larger than Saturn's, but its density is light, indicating it is a gas planet.
"This makes TOI-6894 the lowest mass star known to date to host such a planet," said Edward Bryant, Astrophysics Prize Fellow at the University of Warwick. "This discovery will be a cornerstone for understanding the extremes of giant planet formation."
The newly discovered planet, named TOI-6894b, blocks 17 percent of the star's light, indicating the planet is fairly large, significantly altering theories of planet formation.
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