ISLAMABAD The ‘Super Earth’ is among three new planets and six supernovaeoutside our solar system that have been observed by Nasa’s planet-huntingTess mission in its first three months.
The discovery of the planets was announced by scientists at the annualAmerican Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle, the Guardian reported.
Since the start of the program in July, the MIT-led Transiting ExoplanetSurvey Satellite project has discovered Pi Mensae b, a “super-Earth” whichtravels around its star every six days, and LHS 3844b, a rocky worldwith an orbit of only 11 hours.
The latest discovery – an exoplanet called HD 21749b, has the longestorbital period at 36 days. It orbits a bright dwarf star only about 53light years away in the Reticulum constellation and is thought to have asurface temperature of about 1,650C — a relatively cool temperatureconsidering its proximity to its star.
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“It’s the coolest planet we know of around a star this bright. It’s veryhard to find small planets that orbit farther from their stars, and aretherefore cooler. But here we were lucky, and can now study this onein more detail,” said Diana Dragomir, a Hubble fellow at MIT’s KavliInstitute for Astrophysics and Space Research and the head of the discoveryteam.
