Astronomers found a new ‘Super Earth’ planet

Ever imagined what life would be like on another planet?

Building a home on a planet other than Earth is a difficult task, from the frigid temperatures of Neptune to Venus’ acidic surface.

Astronomers believe they may have discovered a super earth planet comparable to our own, and it isn’t too far away – by space standards.

Astronomers have found and identified a habitable zone planet orbiting the nearby red dwarf star TOI-715 with a period of 19.3 days, using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Additionally, they have shown that a second, smaller exoplanet may exist; its period is 25.6 days, bringing it just inside the habitable zone of TOI-715. Being in this most conservative and broadly applicable habitable zone, this system is the first TESS discovery to fit into that category.

This “Super-Earth” orbits a red star only 137 light-years away and is aptly named TOI-715 b. Doesn’t it just roll off the tongue?

What is Super Earth?

NASA defines Super-Earths as planets that are “more massive than Earth” but smaller than ice giants such as Neptune and Uranus.

There are expected to be 1679 confirmed Super-Earths identified so far.

The star: TOI-715 and its planets – TOI-715b & TOI-715c

TOI-715 is a M dwarf of spectral class M4 located approximately 137 light-years away in the constellation Volans.

The star, also known as TIC 271971130, is about 6.6 billion years old, which makes it older than our Sun.

TOI-715 is home to both the super-Earth exoplanet TOI-715b and the smaller terrestrial exoplanet candidate TOI-715c.

“TOI-715b is about 1.5 times as wide as Earth, and it orbits within the habitable zone around its parent star,” stated Georgina Dransfield and colleagues from the University of Birmingham.

“That’s the distance from the star that could give the planet the right temperature for liquid water to form on its surface.”

“Several other variables would need to line up, of course, for water on the surface to be present, especially having the right atmosphere.”

“TOI-715c, the smaller planet, may only be marginally larger than Earth and may also reside within the conservative habitable zone.”

“A lot will depend on the planet’s other characteristics, such as its mass and whether it qualifies as a water world. If an atmosphere is present, it will likely be more prominent and easier to find than on a more massive, denser, and drier world, which would likely keep its lower-profile atmosphere closer to the surface.”

“It would become the smallest habitable-zone planet found by TESS to date if the possible second, Earth-sized planet in the system is confirmed as well.”

“The discovery of an Earth-sized world in the habitable zone also exceeded early expectations for TESS.” In the future, the TOI-715 b will be studied by the James Webb telescope to find out more about its size and atmosphere.

Read more: Antimatter falls down, not up: CERN experiment confirms theory