Overview

• TOI-6894b is a low-density gas giant with a radius slightly exceeding Saturn’s but only half its mass, completing an orbit every three days.
• The host, TOI-6894, at 20% of the Sun’s mass, is now the smallest star confirmed to harbor a transiting gas giant.
• Researchers discovered the planet by mining TESS data and secured its confirmation through follow-up spectroscopy with ESO’s Very Large Telescope.
• Its unusually cool atmosphere is expected to be methane-rich with potential ammonia signatures and will be probed by JWST within the next year.
• The finding undermines standard core accretion theory and suggests that gas giants may be more prevalent around low-mass stars than previously thought.