Astronomers are excited to announce the discovery of five Neptune-sized exoplanets orbiting a single star! The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission was able to find the planets, which are located about 500 light-years away. All five planets are roughly the size of Neptune and orbit their star every 5.2 to 13 days. This is exciting news as TESS is only able to detect planets that are close to their stars, meaning that the planets are likely to be tidally locked in a “hot Neptune” configuration. This is an important discovery as hot Neptunes are the most common type of exoplanet in the Milky Way, but have been difficult to detect with traditional methods. With the help of TESS, astronomers are now able to better study these exoplanets and better understand their composition and atmosphere.

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source: Phys.org