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♪
Narrator: NASA’s TESS and Spitzer observatories
have found a long-sought world

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orbiting the star AU Microscopii, or  AU Mic for short.

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Located about 32 light-years away,

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the system will be a touchstone for  understanding planetary evolution
for decades to come.

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AU Mic is a red dwarf star
at least 150 times younger than our Sun.

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It’s so young that a vast disk
of dust and icy grains still surrounds it.

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The planet, AU Mic b,

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orbits very close to its star within a central zone
where the disk material is cleared away.

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TESS data show the newly discovered planet is about
8% larger than Neptune. with no more than about 3.4 times its mass.

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TESS finds worlds like AU Mic b by catching
tiny, regular dips in starlight called transits.

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Spitzer, now decommissioned,
confirmed the transits during its final year of operations.

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The planet’s host star is very young.

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Flares and other phenomena also alter its brightness,
which complicated the search.

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In order to find AU Mic b, the science team
had to remove these effects from the data.

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♪

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AU Mic is a nearby laboratory for studying
how stars and planets form and evolve.


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Studying AU Mic b with future missions will also tell us more
about the development and evolution of planetary atmospheres.

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Until then, TESS will continue to hunt for more mysterious worlds…

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…including possibly others orbiting AU Mic.

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On-screen text: EXPLORE SOLAR SYSTEM & BEYOND

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On-screen: NASA logo