A team of American and Japanese astronomers has discovered a new Earth-like planet orbiting a very cool red dwarf star.
The research was carried out by a group of scientists from many leading institutes, schools and research centers in Japan and the United States, such as the Tokyo Institute of Technology, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, the NASA…
Nicknamed as K2-415bThe new world located 72 light years away was first discovered in 2017 by the Kepler space telescope, but only now have its special properties been revealed.
Graphic representing “Another Earth”
Graphic image representing an “Other Earth” – (Photo: NASA)
According to SputnikScientists analyzed high-resolution images and near-infrared spectra of K2-415b and found that it must be a rocky planet like Earth.
This planet has a mass between 1.3 and 5.7 Earth masses, with the highest possibility being 3 times the mass of Earth. It is one of the smallest exoplanets ever discovered in stars tens of light years or more away from us.
This size still places it among Earth-like planets and on the list of worlds that require special attention when traveling to find life in space.
It orbits quite close to the parent star, but that parent star is an M-type dwarf, a red dwarf, the coldest, smallest, and most numerous main sequence star in the Milky Way galaxy containing the Earth. Star K2-415 of this new planet represents only 16% of the mass of our Sun.
“Small planets around M dwarfs provide a good laboratory for exploring the atmospheric diversity of rocky planets and the conditions under which a rocky planet might exist” – said the scientists.
To learn more about the planet and its habitability, scientists will need to study its atmosphere, which is expected to be done using the most powerful space telescope currently available, NASA/ESA/CSA’s James Webb. – Europe-Canada).
The study has just been published online above ArXiv and await peer review for official publication in scientific journals The Astronomical Journal.
Article source: NLD
If there is an error with the article Discovering “Another Earth” Just 72 Light Years Away, or if the content is incorrect, please contact us so we can fix it.
Keyword:
A team of American and Japanese astronomers has discovered a new Earth-like planet orbiting a very cool red dwarf star. Research…
