NASA has discovered a new planet that could support life, orbiting within the habitable zone of it’s star. Astrophysicist Dr Sara Webb joins Today to discuss the planet named TOI 700 e, and what this means for science and space study.
NASA researchers said on Tuesday that they have located an Earth-sized planet in the habitable region of its star. According to NASA, which used information from its Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, the planet, known as TOI 700 e, is a member of the TOI 700 system, 95% the size of Earth, and most likely rocky (TESS).
The study’s lead author, Emily Gilbert, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said in a statement posted on the agency’s website that this is one of the few systems with numerous, small, habitable planets that we are aware of.
Three planets in the same system, known as TOI 700 b, c, and d, were previously found by NASA. According to NASA, planet d is also in the star’s habitable zone. It takes TOI 700 e 28 days to orbit TOI 700, a tiny red dwarf star about 100 light-years from Earth.
