LIÈGE, Belgium — Scientists have discovered a planet nearly the same size as the Earth orbiting a red dwarf star, the dimmest and longest-lived of all stars in the galaxy, according to NASA.
According to a story by Kristen Walbolt, who managed NASA's Exoplanets page, an international team used robotic telescopes around the world to spot the new discovery, which they dubbed SPECULOOS-3 b after the project that discovered it (and a brand of cookie from Belgium).
According to NASA, SPECULOOS-3 b is about 55 light-years from Earth, which is very close in cosmic terms, and is nearly the same size. NASA says one year on SPECULOOS-3 b takes around 17 hours as it orbits its star, but a single day may be endless.
SPECULOOS-3 b is tidally locked, said NASA, meaning that one side always faces its star, and the other "nightside" is locked in "never-ending darkness", always facing away from the star.
The SPECULOOS (Search for Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars) project, which discovered the planet, is led by Michael Gillon at the University of Liège in Belgium, said NASA. The team works to study ultra-cool dwarf stars and any possible planets that may be orbiting them, a field that NASA says is largely unexplored due to the stars being so faint that studying planets around them is difficult.
NASA says red dwarfs, or M dwarfs, such as the one SPECULOOS-3 b orbits, make up 70% of the stars in the Milky Way and are cool and dim compared to other stars like the Sun. They also burn for around 100 billion years or more, according to NASA, compared to the around 10 billion that stars like the Sun typically burn before becoming red giants.
NASA says this timespan could perhaps offer a "foothold" for life on nearby planets, and a longer window of time for life to develop.
NASA says the star SPECULOOS-3 b orbits is thousands of degrees cooler than the Sun, around 4,760 degrees F (2,627 C), and "pummels" the planet with radiation, meaning SPECULOOS-3 b likely does not have an atmosphere.
A paper on the discovery of the planet was published in Nature Astronomy on May 15, with Gillon as the lead author. NASA said the project is a "true international endeavor", with partnership from the Universities of Cambridge, Birmingham, Bern, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and ETH Zürich.
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