TOI1231b could have a large hydrogen or hydrogen-helium atmosphere, or a denser water vapor atmosphere, each of these would point to a different origin, allowing astronomers to understand whether and how planets form differently around M dwarfs when compared to the planets around our Sun, for example.

Diana Dragomir

There was quite some detective work involved, and the right people were there at the right time, but we were lucky, and we caught the signals, and they were really clear.

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For stars that are very close by and very bright, we expected to find up to a couple dozen Earth-sized planets, and here we are -- this would be our first one, and it's a milestone for TESS. It sets the path for finding smaller planets around even smaller stars, and those planets may potentially be habitable.

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Its the coolest small planet that we know of around a star this bright, we know a lot about atmospheres of hot planets, but because its very hard to find small planets that orbit farther from their stars and are therefore cooler, we havent been able to learn much about these smaller, cooler planets.

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