Scientists rediscover lost planet 'NGTS-11b' after 2 long years: Reports

Around two years ago, Scientists from NASA reportedly discovered a lost planet far away from the Earth. The planet has been named as NGTS-11b and it was discovered using high technology telescope called TESS. 

Lost planet NGTS-11b found by scientists

The scientists from the University of Warwick in the UK had discovered NGTS-11b around 2 years ago in the year 2018 using NASA's TESS telescope. TESS stands for Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and is capable of finding objects far away in space. This telescope is originally used for spotting exoplanets. 

The name NGTS-11b came after scientists from the University of Warwick in the UK using the telescopes at the Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) in Chile. 

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After the discovery of the planet in 2018, it went missing and scientists were unable to find it. The TESS telescope is an essential tool as it scans a major portion of the sky for only 27 days and it relies on the transit method to notice the planets. This is the reason why many of the longer period planets only pass once in the telescope’s data and NGTS-11b revolves around the star which is distant from the Earth. The distance between Earth and NGTS-11b's a star is 620 light-years away, according to the university's website.

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The Lost Planet NGTS-11b is said to be similar in size and mass to Saturn, however, its orbit is of 35 days. The scientists also found out that the planet has a temperature of only 160°C, cooler than Venus and Mercury. The scientists revealed that the spotting of NGTS-11b could guide the way for the discovery of a world within the habitable ‘Goldilocks zone’ in a distant solar system. The Warwick team was led by Dr Samuel Gill from the Department of Physics at the University and the study has been published in Astrophysical Journal Letters. Dr Gill mentioned the importance of the rediscovery of NGTS-11b by saying: "These discoveries are rare but important since they allow us to find longer period planets than other astronomers are finding. Longer period planets are cooler, more like the planets in our own Solar System”. 

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