Heidari, Neda; Alnajjarine, Ahmad; Osborn, Hugh P.; Dragomir, Diana; Dalba, Paul; Benz, Willy; H茅brard, Guillaume; Laskar, Jacques; Billot, Nicolas; G眉nther, Maximilian N.; Wilson, Thomas G.; Alibert, Yann; Bonfanti, Andrea; Bieryla, Allyson; Broeg, Christopher; Correia, Alexandre C. M.; Egger, Jan A.; Essack, Ziyaad; Furlan, Elsa; Gandolfi, Davide; Grieves, Neil; Howell, Steve; Lacourse, David; Pezzotti, Carlo; Pritchard, Tom; Sousa, S茅rgio G.; Ulmer-Moll, St茅phanie; Villanueva, Sergio; Alonso, Roi; Asquier, Julien; B谩rczy, Tam谩s; Barrado, David; Barros, Susana C. C.; Baumjohann, Wolfgang; Borsato, Luca; Brandeker, Alexis; Buder, Sven; Collier Cameron, Andrew; Csizmadia, Szil谩rd; Cubillos, Patricio E.; Davies, Melvyn B.; Deleuil, Magali; Delfosse, Xavier; Deline, Alexandre; Demangeon, Olivier D. S.; Demory, Brice; Derekas, Attila; Edwards, Billy; Ehrenreich, David; Erikson, Anders; Fortier, Andrea; Fossati, Luca; Fridlund, Malcolm; Gazeas, Konstantinos; Gillon, Micha毛l; G眉del, Manuel; Hasiba, Jozef; Heitzmann, Alexandre; Helling, Christiane; Jenkins, Jon M.; Keller, Tobias; Kane, Stephen R.; Stassun, Keivan G.; Kiss, L谩szl贸 L.; Korth, Judith; Lam, Kwok-Wai F.; Latham, David W.; Lecavelier des Etangs, Alain; Leleu, Adrien; Lendl, Monika; Maxted, Pierre F. L.; McDermott, Sean; Mer铆n, Bruno; Mordasini, Christoph; Nascimbeni, Valerio; Nowak, Grzegorz; Olofsson, G枚ran; Pagano, Ignasi; Pall茅, Enric; Piotto, Giampaolo; Pollacco, Don; Queloz, Didier; Ragazzoni, Roberto; Rauer, Heike; Ribas, Ignasi; Ricker, George; Santos, Nuno C.; Scandariato, Gaetano; Seager, Sara; S茅gransan, Damien; Simon, Alexandre E.; Smith, Alexis M. S.; Stalport, Marie; Striegel, Sebastian; Sulis, Stefano; Szab贸, Gyula M.; Udry, St茅phane; Van Grootel, Val茅rie; Vanderspek, Roland; Venturini, Julien; Villaver, Eva; Viotto, Valerio; Walton, Nicholas A.; Winn, Joshua N.; Wolf, Sebastian (2026).听.听Astronomy and Astrophysics, 707, A134.听
This study describes a newly analyzed planetary system called聽TOI-6041, centered around a relatively bright, Sun-like star. Researchers identified at least two planets orbiting this star. The inner planet,聽TOI-6041 b, is a 鈥�warm Neptune,鈥� meaning it is similar in size to Neptune but orbits closer to its star, giving it a higher temperature. It was first noticed as a single dip in brightness (a聽transit, when a planet passes in front of its star) in data from the TESS space telescope. Follow-up observations with TESS and another space telescope, CHEOPS, detected more transits, allowing scientists to determine that the planet orbits its star roughly every 26 days. Interestingly, the timing of these transits is not perfectly regular鈥攖here are noticeable shifts of up to about an hour, known as聽transit-timing variations (TTVs), which often 啶膏啶曕啶he gravitational influence of other planets in the system.
Additional measurements using the聽radial velocity (RV)聽method鈥攚hich detects tiny wobbles in a star caused by orbiting planets鈥攔evealed a second planet,聽TOI-6041 c, with a much longer orbit of about 88 days and a mass at least a quarter that of Jupiter. The researchers suggest that the gravitational pull of this outer planet could explain the unusual timing variations of the inner planet, but only if planet c has a somewhat elongated (eccentric) orbit. Their calculations show that such an arrangement could remain stable over time. However, another possibility is that there is a third, smaller planet in the system that has not yet been directly detected, which could also be causing the timing irregularities鈥攅specially if it is in a special orbital relationship called a聽resonance聽(where orbital periods are in simple ratios).
Because the current data are not yet precise enough to fully resolve these possibilities, the authors emphasize the need for more observations. Better measurements would help determine the exact masses of the planets and clarify how they interact, ultimately improving our understanding of the system鈥檚 structure and long-term stability.
Fig 1: Spectral energy distribution of TOI-6041. Red symbols represent the observed photometric measurements, where the horizontal bars represent the effective width of the pass band. Blue symbols show the model fluxes from the best-fit PHOENIX atmosphere model (black). The absolute flux-calibrated聽Gaia聽spectrum is shown as a gray swathe in the inset figure.