Pi Earth: Scientists Find Earth-Sized Planet Orbiting Its Star Every 3.14 Days
pi Earth is a planet approximately the size of Earth that orbits around its star every 314 days. The planet has been labeled K2-315b and is estimated to have a radius of 095 that of Earths making it almost equal in size. The resemblance to Earth however does not make the planet a habitable planet.
Over time, several exoplanets have been found to exist, that resemble planet Earth in one form or the other. Few are as interesting as the recently discovered ¡°pi Earth¡±, a planet approximately the size of Earth, that orbits around its star every 3.14 days.
Discovered by scientists at MIT and elsewhere, ¡°pi Earth¡± has a unique orbit that follows the universal mathematics constant for a complete revolution around its star. The planet has been labeled K2-315b and is estimated to have a radius of 0.95 that of Earth¡¯s, making it almost equal in size.
Pi Earth depiction (Image: MIT)
The resemblance to Earth, however, does not make K2-315b a habitable planet. As can be judged from its extremely short orbit time, the planet is very close to its ¡°cool, low-mass star,¡± which is around one-fifth the size of the sun. The short distance heats the surface of the planet to up to 450 kelvins, or around 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
¡°Perfect, as it turns out, for baking actual pie,¡± a release by MIT mocks.
The release mentions that the planet moves at a blistering 81 kilometers per second to circle its star every 3.14 days. K2-315b is the 315th planetary system discovered within K2 data.
Pi Earth planet
The release by MIT points out that researchers used data from NASA Kepler Space Telescope to detect the pi Earth. They first discovered signals of the planet in 2017 data by the telescope.
Reuters
They then zeroed in on the system earlier in 2020 with SPECULOOS, a network of ground-based telescopes. The observation confirmed the existence of a planet orbiting its star. It seems the planet is still circling its star today, with a pi-like period - every 3.14 days.
¡°The planet moves like clockwork,¡± says Prajwal Niraula, a graduate student in MIT¡¯s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS), who is the lead author of a paper published today in the Astronomical Journal. The paper is titled: ¡°¦Ð Earth: a 3.14-day Earth-sized Planet from K2¡¯s Kitchen Served Warm by the SPECULOOS Team.¡±
