Astronomers Find Nearby Super Earth Is Way More Like Our Own Planet
Astronomers at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) have discovered a potentially habitable super-Earth located just 25 light-years away, offering a major new target in the search for alien life.
The newly discovered planet (GJ 3378b) orbits its host star (GJ 3378) within the coveted habitable zone and also happens to be a relatively close neighbor to us. Sure, 25 light-years may sound like quite the trek, but on the scale of our 100,000-light-year-wide Milky Way, 3378b resides practically next door.
Of course, what makes the planet particularly thrilling to scientists is its remarkable similarity in energy reception to Earth. 3378b has a minimum mass just over twice that of Earth and receives roughly 90% of solar radiation from its sun, thus placing the planet squarely in the goldilocks sweet spot for habitability. The team was able to detect the world by combing data from the Habitable-zone Planet Finder on...
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