Second potentially habitable Earth-sized planet found
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A NASA mission has discovered an Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting a small star about 100 light-years away.
The planet, named TOI 700 e, is likely rocky and 95% larger than our world. The celestial body is the fourth planet discovered orbiting the small cold dwarf star M TOI 700. All exoplanets were discovered using the NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite or the TESS mission.
Another planet in the system, discovered in 2020 and named TOI 700 d, is also the size of Earth. Both of these exoplanets exist in their star’s habitable zone, or at the right distance from the star where liquid water could potentially exist on their surface. This implies that the planets themselves may be, or may have once been, habitable.
The discovery of the fourth planet was announced Tuesday at the 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle, and the study of the exoplanet was accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The TESS mission has discovered a potentially habitable planet the size of Earth and the Tatooine system
“This is one of the few systems we know of with multiple small habitable zones,” said study lead author Emily Gilbert, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
“This makes the TOI 700 system an interesting prospect for further development,” she added.
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