Nasa discovers Earth-like exoplanet - liquid water could exist on it
Created: 01/12/2023 09:52
By: Tanya Banner
The newly discovered exoplanet TOI 700e is Earth-like and orbits its planet in the "optimistic" habitable zone.
That means liquid surface water could exist at some point in the planet's history.
(Artist's rendering) © Imago/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Robert Hurt
A research team makes a spectacular find in space: an earth-like exoplanet that could have liquid water on its surface.
Pasadena – The NASA space telescope TESS has been in space since April 2018, searching for previously unknown exoplanets.
The planet hunter from the US space agency Nasa has already discovered 285 planets orbiting stars outside our solar system, and more than 6,000 other candidates are waiting to be confirmed.
One of the most exciting planets that TESS has found so far is called TOI 700d.
It is about the size of Earth and is located in the so-called habitable zone of its star TOI 700, about 100 light-years from Earth.
The technical term "habitable zone" refers to the region around the star in which liquid water on the planet's surface is possible.
Two other planets also orbiting the star are outside of this zone.
NASA space telescope finds Earth-sized planet
But now researchers have made an important discovery in the data from the NASA planet hunter: Another planet orbits the red dwarf TOI 700, which is also very exciting for research.
The newly discovered exoplanet called TOI 700e is about 95 percent the size of Earth and is therefore very likely also a rocky planet.
It orbits its star once every 28 days, presumably always turning the same side to it - just like the moon does to Earth.
What is particularly exciting about the new find is that the exoplanet TOI 700e, like TOI 700d, is in the habitable zone of the star - at least if you interpret it a little more generously.
The newly discovered exoplanet lies in the "optimistic" habitable zone, defined as the area where liquid surface water could exist at some point in a planet's history.
TESS helps to find smaller and smaller exoplanets
"This is one of the few systems we know of with multiple, small planets in the habitable zone," said Emily Gilbert of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who led the research.
"This makes the TOI 700 system an exciting object for further investigations." The latest discovery also shows that smaller and smaller worlds can be found with the help of TESS, says Gilbert and explains: "Planet e is about ten percent smaller than the planet d.”
According to the astronomer, several observation campaigns are currently underway to further investigate the exoplanet.
As the portal Space.com reports, among other things, the Very Large Telescope in Chile and the "Hubble" space telescope are set to TOI 700e.
And TESS is also looking again in the direction of the newly discovered exoplanet: In just over a week, the Nasa telescope should see the star TOI 700 and its planets.
"There are no results yet, but we have exciting things ahead of us," says Gilbert happily.
The results of the research were presented at the 241st Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Seattle.
The study was also accepted for publication by The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
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TRAPPIST-1: Seven Earth-like planets
Another planetary system that is of great interest to research is TRAPPIST-1.
The red dwarf star is about forty light-years from Earth and is orbited by seven Earth-like planets - three of which are in the habitable zone.
