Context

According to the Indian Space Research Organization, an exoplanet was discovered using the indigenously made PRL Advanced Radial-velocity Abu-sky Search spectrograph (PARAS) at PRL's 1.2 m telescope at its Gurushikhar Observatory in Mt. Abu by precisely measuring the planet's mass.

 

Key highlights:

• This discovery marks the third exoplanet discovery by India, and by the PRL scientists using PARAS spectrograph and the PRL 1.2m telescope, following the discoveries in 2018 (K2-236b) and 2021 (TOI-1789b).
• A new Jupiter-size exoplanet with the highest density known till this date and mass 13 times than that of Jupiter has been discovered by an international team of scientists led by Abhijit Chakraborty at the Exoplanet Research Group of the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad.
• An exoplanet is any planet beyond the solar system and the planet discovered by scientists from India, Germany, Switzerland and the USA is with a density of ~14 g/cm3. Massive giant exoplanet are those having mass greater than four times that of Jupiter.
• The newly discovered exoplanet is found around the star called TOI4603 or HD 245134.
• NASA’s The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) initially declared TOI4603 as a possible candidate to host a secondary body of unknown nature.
• The newly discovered exoplanet TOI 4603b is one of the most massive and densest giant planets that orbits very close to its host star at a distance less than 1/10th the distance between our Sun and Earth.