Newly Identified 'Super-Earth' , In Nearby Solar System , May Be Habitable.
A team of international scientists have discovered two new "super-Earth" type planets approximately 100 light-years away.
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NPR reports that one of those planets may be suitable for life.
First, a NASA satellite discovered planet LP 890-9b, which is about 30% bigger than Earth and has a lightning quick orbit of 2.7 days around its sun.
On August 7, researchers at Belgium's University of Liège announced that a second planet in the solar system had been spotted with Earth-based telescopes.
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LP 890-9c is 40% larger than Earth and has a slightly slower orbit of 8.5 days.
ULiège researchers renamed LP 890-9c , 'SPECULOOS-2c.'.
According to Francisco Pozuelos, one of the main co-authors of the paper, the planet may be suitable for life despite being only 3.7 million miles from its sun.
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By comparison, Earth is, over 93 million miles , away from our sun.
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Although this planet orbits very close to its star, at a distance about 10 times shorter than that of Mercury around our sun, .., Francisco Pozuelos, Researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia, via NPR.
... the amount of stellar irradiation it receives is still low, and could allow the presence of liquid water on the planet's surface, provided it has a sufficient atmosphere, Francisco Pozuelos, Researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia, via NPR.
This is because the star LP 890-9 is about 6.5 times smaller than the sun and has a surface temperature half that of our star, Francisco Pozuelos, Researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia, via NPR
