Jakarta, IDN Times – The United States Space Agency (USA), NASA, has discovered an extrasolar planet (exoplanet) the size of the earth. The planet is said to orbit about 100 light years.
NASA gave the planet the name TOI 700 e. The exoplanet was discovered by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS mission. The announcement of the discovery was made at the 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society, in Seattle.
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1. The second planet discovered is roughly the size of Earth
NASA’s TESS mission has carried out various missions to search for planets in space, especially in extrasolar space. In their latest result, the mission has found a planet estimated to be the size of Earth.
NASA named the planet TOI 700 e, quote Cnn. It is also the second planet said to be the size of Earth. TOI 700e is said to be most likely composed of a rocky planet 95 percent the size of the Earth we inhabit.
Another planet that NASA discovered is roughly the same size as Earth is called TOI 700 d. This was discovered in 2020. Both planets are in the habitable zone, where liquid water is likely to exist on their surfaces.
“This is one of the few systems with many, small planets, habitable zones that we know of,” said Emily Gilbert, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
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2. In total, NASA has found four planets in the same system
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NASA’s TESS mission, according to Paul Hertz, senior adviser to the science mission directorate associate administrator, explained that the program helps humans find Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby stars.
Reported associated press, In total, the TESS mission has discovered four Earth-sized exoplanets so far. Each of these results is called TOI 700 b, c and d. The last one is the TOI 700 e.
The four planets orbit a small red dwarf about 100 light-years from Earth. The planet TOI 700 and itself is estimated to take 28 days to orbit its star.
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3. More than 200 exoplanets have been confirmed
space planet illustration (Pixabay.com/Mikkehouse)TOI or TESS Object of Interest is used as the designation for the planet name in the system studied in the mission. The recently discovered TOI of 700e falls between the TOI of 700c and the TOI of 700d.
Described in Space, Gilbert said TESS will conduct more observing campaigns to characterize the new planet. No results so far other than its Earth-like size and orbital time.
“There are no results yet, but exciting things are coming,” Gilbert said.
Gilbert is currently observing the system with the Very Large Telescope in Chile, using the Echelle Spectrograph for Rocky Exoplanets and Stable Spectroscopic Observations (ESPRESSO) instrument. This system is designed to characterize Earth-like exoplanets.
Since launching in April 2018, NASA’s TESS mission has discovered 285 confirmed exoplanets and more than 6,000 candidates. The most interesting of all is the TOI 700 d.
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