Scientists Find A Planet Just Like Earth Outside Our Solar System, 300 Lightyears Away
A group of NASA scientists have discovered a new Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting far away outside our solar system. They¡¯ve named the planet Kepler-1649c. They discovered the planet while looking through old observations from Kepler that was already retired in 2018.
A group of NASA scientists have discovered a new Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting far away outside our solar system. They¡¯ve named the planet Kepler-1649c.
NASA
They discovered the planet while looking through old observations from Kepler that was already retired in 2018. Previous searches with computer algorithms misidentified it, however, researchers had a second look at it and recognised it as a planet.
The planet is far from Earth -- around 300 lightyears away from Earth -- and its the most similar to Earth in its size as well as the surface temperature. It is only 1.6 times larger than our home, and it received 75 percent of starlight from the sun, which indicates that the temperature on the planet won¡¯t be much different from ours.
However, one key difference is that unlike Earth, the newly discovered planet orbits a red dwarf. NASA scientists hint that this kind of star is known for stellar flare-ups that could make it difficult for life to thrive on the planet.
According to Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA¡¯s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, "This intriguing, distant world gives us even greater hope that a second Earth lies among the stars, waiting to be found.¡±
He further added, ¡°The data gathered by missions like Kepler and our Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will continue to yield amazing discoveries as the science community refines its abilities to look for promising planets year after year.¡±
NASA
There are still many things we don¡¯t know about this newly discovered planet. We don¡¯t know about its atmosphere, or even if it has one. Moreover, current calculations of the planet¡¯s size have numerous margins of error -- which is common since scientists are studying subjects that are so far away.
But scientists are still happy with its discovery. According to Andrew Vanderburg, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, also the lead author of the study, ¡°Out of all the mislabeled planets we've recovered, this one's particularly exciting ¨C not just because it's in the habitable zone and Earth-size, but because of how it might interact with this neighbouring planet. If we hadn't looked over the algorithm's work by hand, we would have missed it.¡±
