The TESS telescope has not yet celebrated its fifth year in orbit that a new potentially habitable planet has just been discovered by NASA experts. The exoplanet in question is approaching the size of Earth and is located in a habitable zone.
Does the future of humanity go through the colonization of other planets? While on Earth, resources are dwindling and the threat of climate change announces dark times for the world’s population, this possibility is not ruled out by scientists. On January 10, the American space agency (NASA) announced the discovery of “TOI 700″e, an exoplanet potentially “inhabitable”. “The world is 95% the size of Earth and probably rocky“, writes NASA in an article published on January 10. It is also located in a habitable zone, namely “the distance from a star at which liquid water might exist on the surfaces of planets in orbit”, details the agency in a video.
A planet located 100 light years from Earth
Since 2018, the TESS mission (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and the telescope of the same name have been scanning space in search of exoplanets and terrestrial planets orbiting in the habitable zone of stars located near the Earth, including those that might harbor life. It turns out that TOI 700e, which is 100 light years from Earth, is in the same constellation as TOI 700 b, TOI 700 c, and TOI 700d, three other exoplanets previously discovered. “It is one of the few systems with several small habitable planets that we know of.“, said Emily Gilbert, postdoctoral fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from NASA in Southern California, which piloted the work. We also know that it is located 100 light-years from Earth, in the southern constellation of Dorade (southern hemisphere).
Discovery Alert ????
A second Earth-sized planet is found lurking in a nearby star’s habitable zone. It joins three other planets in a red dwarf system 100 light-years away in the Southern constellation Dorado. https://t.co/82uDGPvgUt pic.twitter.com/oFRy2MQhNo— NASA Exoplanets (@NASAExoplanets) January 10, 2023
Another planet discovered thanks to the James Webb telescope
“Planet e is regarding 10% smaller than planet d, so the system also shows how additional TESS observations help us find smaller and smaller worlds“, also details the researcher in the same press release. But it is not the only exoplanet, a planet located outside the solar system, discovered in recent days. For the first time, the James Webb telescope has identified a new exoplanet, more than a year following its launch into space. After bringing back the “deepest image of the Universe ever taken”ce gem of engineering reveals what researchers have dubbed “LHS 475 b,” a planet even closer to Earth than TOI 700e. As NASA points out, scientists currently have no idea if it has an atmosphere, and what that atmosphere might be made up of, just as they still don’t know if there is water. on TOI 700e, and if therefore life can develop there.
LHS 475 b is relatively close, at only 41 light-years away, in the constellation Octans. We don’t yet know *if* it has an atmosphere, but @NASAWebb was already able to rule out a thick atmosphere. The telescope will study this planet this summer to tell us more! pic.twitter.com/eMZfQD5Jj3
— NASA Exoplanets (@NASAExoplanets) January 11, 2023
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