Confirmed Exoplanet Discovered 2025

TOI-521 b

A super-earth orbiting the m-type red dwarf TOI-521, located approximately 198.8 light-years from Earth.

Key parameters at a glance

  • A radius of 1.98 Earth radii
  • A mass of 5.30 Earth masses
  • Surface gravity around 1.35 g
  • An orbital period of 1.543 days
  • Semi-major axis 0.0195 AU
  • Equilibrium temperature 794 K (521 °C)
  • Distance from Earth 198.77 light-years
  • Earth Similarity Index 0.354
  • Travel time at Voyager 1 speed 3,505,267 years
  • Almost certainly tidally locked to its host star given the close orbit

TOI-521 b Planet Profile

Physical Specs

Radius
1.98 R⊕
Radius (Jupiter)
0.177 R♃
Mass
5.30 M⊕
Mass (Jupiter)
0.017 M♃
Density
3.80 g/cm³
Surface Gravity
1.35 g (Earth)

Classification

Planet Type

Super-Earth

ESI Score 0.354
HZ Position Inner
Controversial No

Discovery

Year 2025
Method Transit
Facility Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
Telescope 0.1 m TESS Telescope

Size rank in cohort

Rank by radius

#25of 1176

top 2.0%

This planet

1.98R⊕

Super-Earth median

1.60R⊕

Nearest-size peers

Metric Earth TOI-521 b Jupiter
Radius (R⊕)1.001.9811.21
Mass (M⊕)1.005.30317.83
Density (g/cm³)5.513.801.33
Surface Gravity (g)1.001.352.53
Insolation (S⊕)1.0066.000.037

Alternative Mass Estimates

Method Value Interpretation
Best measured mass 5.300 M⊕ Direct mass measurement (not derived).

Star Catalogue Identifiers

TIC

TIC 27649847

Gaia DR2

Gaia DR2 649852779797683968

Gaia DR3

Gaia DR3 649852779797683968

System

TOI-521

Percentile among Super-Earth cohort

Radius 1.980 R⊕ · percentile 97 / cohort 1176
Mass 5.300 M⊕ · percentile 93 / cohort 1176
Orbital period 1.54 d · percentile 9 / cohort 1164
Distance 60.94 pc · percentile 12 / cohort 1171
ESI 0.354 · percentile 51 / cohort 1176

Orbit & Habitability

Orbital Dynamics

Period
1.543 days
Semi-major axis
0.0195 AU
Eccentricity
0.000
Inclination
88.60 °

Year Length

A year here lasts approximately 1.54 Earth days (0.4% of a terrestrial year) on a nearly circular orbit at a mean orbital distance of 0.0195 AU.

Transit Fingerprint

Depth

0.215 %

Duration

1.180 h

Impact parameter b

0.240

Rp / R★

0.043100

Transit midpoint (BJD)

2,458,492.7153

Photometric dip

Transit produces a flux drop of 2,155 ppm lasting ≈ 1.18 h.

Extended Orbital Architecture

Planet / star radius ratio

0.043100

Semi-major axis / stellar radius

10.100

Impact parameter (b)

0.240

RV semi-amplitude (K)

5.260 m/s

Transit mid-time (BJD)

2,458,492.7153

Long. of periastron (ω)

90.00°

Angular separation (arcsec)

0.32000

Eq. Temperature

794K

(521 °C)

Insolation (S⊕)

66.00

Earth = 1.00

Earth Similarity (ESI)

0.354

0 = alien, 1 = Earth-identical

Inside the inner HZ boundary (too hot for liquid water) — the surface is too hot to retain surface water. Close-orbiting tidally-locked around a cool host.

Detection Signatures

Transit photometry

A transit dip has been observed from at least one telescope.

Radial velocity

Stellar wobble has been measured spectroscopically.

Discovery Paper

Primary reference

Lacedelli et al. 2025

Instrument

TESS CCD Array

Publication

2025-09

Observation locale

Space

Host System: TOI-521

Spectral Class

M-type red dwarf

Effective Temperature

3,544 K — cooler than the Sun (5,778 K)

Estimated Age

0.80 Gyr — younger than the Sun (4.6 Gyr)

Stellar Radius

0.421 R☉

Stellar Mass

0.420 M☉

Metallicity [Fe/H]

-0.12

Extended Stellar Properties

Surface gravity (log g)

4.970 dex

Stellar density

8.177 g/cm³

Systemic radial velocity

-9.31 km/s

Activity index (log R'HK)

-5.500

Metallicity ratio

[Fe/H]

Distance
60.94 parsec
Light-years 198.77 ly
V-band magnitude
14.69 mag
Voyager-speed travel 3,505,267 yr

Multi-band Host Photometry — 11 bands

9.016.316.27B14.69V13.59Gaia12.40TESS10.92J10.36H10.09K9.99W19.85W29.73W39.01W4

Astrometric Data

Parallax

16.380 mas

Total Proper Motion

121.183 mas/yr

PM Right Ascension

90.41 mas/yr

PM Declination

80.69 mas/yr

Galactic Cartesian (pc)

x = -0.537 · y = 0.816 · z = 0.212

Equatorial (J2000)

RA 123.34426° · Dec 12.22211°

Galactic ℓ, b

210.902° · 23.636°

Ecliptic λ, β

122.806° · -7.500°

HTM-20 index

537190698

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