Using NASA’s Kepler and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), astronomers have detected a new Earth-sized exoplanet located some 70 light years away from the sun. The exoworld, designated K2-415b, is estimated to be at least three times more massive than our planet. The discovery was reported in a paper published on the arXiv pre-print server on February 1.
The Kepler mission has identified more than 2,600 exoplanets to date. After two of its reaction wheels failed in 2013, the spacecraft was repurposed as K2 to perform high-precision photometry of selected fields in the ecliptic. The K2 mission was active until November 2018.
TESS is currently surveying about 200,000 of the brightest stars near the sun in order to search for transiting exoplanets. So far, it has identified more than 6,100 candidate exoplanets (TESS Objects of Interest, or TOI), of which around 3,000 have been confirmed.
An international team of astronomers led by Teruyuki Hirano of the Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI) in Japan has now confirmed the existence of an exoplanet initially identified by the K2 mission in the light curve of M dwarf star K2-415. This was done using TESS observations.
K2-415b is estimated to have a radius of 1.015 Earth radii and a mass of 3.0 Earth masses. It orbits its parent star every 4.018 days at a distance of 0.027 AU from it. The equilibrium temperature of K2-415b is estimated to be around 400 K.
2023-02-12 10:50:58
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Astronomers have made a major discovery in the outer reaches of our solar system: they have recently discovered a new Earth-sized exoplanet located in our cosmic vicinity.
This exoplanet, called GJ1132b, orbits a red dwarf star located a mere 39 light years away from our solar system, making it one of the nearer extrasolar planets detected to date. The discovery was made using data from the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s 3.6m telescope in La Silla, Chile.
The exoplanet is believed to be rocky, like Earth, and its mass is estimated to be 1.16 times that of our planet’s. Besides its small size, researchers say that GJ1132b also differs from its larger counterparts such as Jupiter or Saturn due to its close proximity to its star. It is estimated that it completes an orbit of the star in just 1.6 days, meaning that its surface temperature ranges between 370-460 degrees Celsius.
Given its size, proximity to our solar system, and other factors, GJ1132b is a very promising target for future studies of exoplanets. Astronomers have already identified it as the most desirable candidate for future observation, given the cost involved in selecting and designing missions.
This discovery not only reveals the size and characteristics of a potentially habitable exoplanet, but it also brings us closer to understanding our place in the universe. By continuing to observe GJ1132b, as well as other exoplanets, astronomers are beginning to gain an unprecedented glimpse of our cosmic vicinity.
