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<p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source">JASIEK KRZYSZTOFIAK/NATURE</p><p class="caption">This artist's impression of Kepler-78b shows the view from the planet's  surface, with the disk of its host star filling much of the sky.</p></div><p></p></div></span>Researchers announced today that they have discovered a planet outside our solar system - known as an exoplanet - that is not only comparable in size to <keyword id="6359982" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="earth">Earth</keyword> but also has a mass and density similar to Earth.</p>
<p>The planet, Kepler-78b, orbits a sun-like star called Kepler-78 every 8.5 hours. </p>
<p>The findings were reported in two studies (<a href="http://press.nature.com/pdf/press_files/nature/31-10-2013/nature12767_Howard.pdf" target="_blank">one</a> and <a href="http://press.nature.com/pdf/press_files/nature/31-10-2013/nature12768_Pepe.pdf" target="_blank">two</a>) published in Nature on Wednesday.  </p>
<p>Thanks to NASA's <keyword id="914541" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Kepler-telescope">Kepler telescope</keyword>, astronomers have discovered <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-habitable-planet-2013-4">thousands of exoplanets</a> in our galaxy, many that are Earth-sized and circle stars like our sun. Although measuring the size of an exoplanet is relatively easy, determining its mass has proven more challenging. Mass is an important measurement because it's an indication of a planet's density, and therefore, what that planet is made of.</p>
<p>Kepler-78b is exciting because it is now the smallest exoplanet for which both radius and mass are known accurately, according to scientists. </p>
<p>Kepler-78b has a radius that is 20% greater than Earth's and a mass that is roughly 80% greater. By astronomical standards it is "a virtual twin of Earth," writes Drake Deming in a news article for Nature.</p>
<p>Scientists determine the size and orbit-period of <keyword id="122247" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Exoplanets">exoplanets</keyword> by measuring how much light the planet blocks as it passes in front of its host star. After measuring the brightness of Kepler-78 for four years in 30-minute intervals, researchers found that the star's brightness declined by .02% every 8.5 hours as Kepler-78b passed in front of it.</p>
<p>A planet's mass is traditionally found by measuring the velocity of its host star toward and away of from us, which is a result of a planet's gravitational tug. Light waves from a star moving toward us are shifted toward the blue end of the spectrum (they become compressed) and light waves from a star moving away from us are shifted toward the red end of the spectrum (they are stretched out). The closer a planet is to its host star, the faster the star moves, resulting in a larger color shift. Although most exoplanets produce Doppler shifts that are too small to be measured, Kepler-78b is close enough to its parent star that shifts in wavelength - and therefore both mass and density - could be determined. </p>
<p>Two independent studies found the exoplanet's density to be 5.3 and 5.57 grams per cubic centimeter. This is similar to Earth's density of 5.5 grams per cubic centimeter, meaning Kepler-78b is probably composed of iron and rock.</p>
<p>However, because Kepler-78b orbits so close to its host star it would be way too hot to support life. But being able to calculate the planet's density is a big step toward finding an Earth-twin. </p>

New Exoplanet Is A 'Virtual Twin Of Earth'

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>A powerful orbiting telescope called <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-launch-tess-nasa-planet-hunting-telescope-2018-4">Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)</a> has discovered a "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cold-super-earth-planet-barnards-star-2018-11">super-Earth</a>" and two "sub-Neptunes" orbiting a star just 73 light-years away.</li><li>One of the sub-Neptunes is in the star's habitable zone - where it's possible for planets to support life - but scientists think its atmosphere is very thick.</li><li>TESS is NASA's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-space-telescope-tess-searches-for-alien-planets-2018-8">most powerful tool in the search for Earth-like planets</a>. It has already <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-tess-releases-first-image-2018-9">discovered</a> over 850 potential new planets since it <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-launch-nasa-exoplanet-telescope-youtube-webcast-2018-4">launched</a> a year ago.&#xa0;</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>Three newly discovered worlds are among the smallest and nearest we've ever detected.</p><p>NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) - a super-powerful orbiting telescope designed to hunt for alien worlds - found the planets orbiting a star just 73 light-years away.</p><p>One is a rocky "super-Earth," more massive than our home planet but lighter than giants like Neptune. The other two are icy "sub-Neptunes" about half the size of the real Neptune.&#xa0;</p><p>The sub-Neptune that's farthest from its star appears to be within its habitable zone, which means the planet is just the right distance away to hold liquid water. However, scientists think the planet's atmosphere is probably too thick to support life, since it likely traps too much heat.&#xa0;</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Still, the researchers say the star - named TOI-270, since it's the 270th "TESS Object of Interest" - could have other planets in its habitable zone. These nearby planets could also offer clues about how our own solar system formed.</p><h2>TESS is NASA's most powerful planet-hunting telescope yet</h2><p>TESS is a car-sized, highly sensitive telescope that launched in April 2018. Two months later, it settled into a unique orbit between Earth and the moon and started scanning the sky up to 300 light-years from our solar system. Specifically, TESS is looking for exoplanets: planets that orbit other stars.&#xa0;</p><p><span><em><strong>Read more:&#xa0;</strong></em><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/extrasolar-planet-nasa-discoveries-data-animated-map-2019-7">An incredible new animation shows where, when, and how astronomers found 4,000 planets beyond our solar system</a></span></p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>To hunt for these exoplanets, TESS watches thousands of stars for "transits": tiny dips in a star's brightness that could be caused by a planet passing in front of it. It observes one patch of the sky for 27 days at a time before moving on to a new patch. Each half of the sky (the northern half and the southern half) has 13 patches.</p><p>&#xa0;</p><p>Once the mission ends a year from now, TESS will have observed over 85% of the sky. Scientists expect that it will have identified thousands of exoplanet candidates, some of which could be habitable.&#xa0;</p><p>&#xa0;</p><p>TESS has <a href="https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/">found</a> over 850 potential new planets since it launched, though only 24 have been confirmed as exoplanets. Ground-based telescopes will help to analyze the rest over time.</p><p>The three newly discovered planets are among the 10 closest confirmed planets TESS has identified so far.&#xa0;<span style="background-color: #ffff00;"></span></p><h2>Sub-Neptunes and a super-Earth&#xa0;</h2><p>The newly discovered star system has something ours doesn't: Its two sub-Neptunes are "intermediate" planets, with a size and composition somewhere between that of Earth and Neptune. That means rocky super-Earth isn't much smaller than its neighbors, unlike in our own solar system.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>"There are a lot of little pieces of the puzzle that we can solve with this system," <span>Maximilian Günther, lead author of a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-019-0845-5">paper</a> about the discovery published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/natastron/">Nature Astronomy</a>, said in a press release</span>.&#xa0;</p><p>Our own solar system is one of extremes, with huge differences in size and composition between the small, rocky inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) and the distant ice giants (Neptune and Uranus). So astronomers think the two sub-Neptunes could help them figure out whether small, rocky, Earth-like planets form in the same way as massive icy ones, or whether the two types follow different paths.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>The new worlds also exhibit a unique mathematical quality that researchers don't fully understand yet. The planets line up in a chain, with the ratio of their orbits falling very close to whole numbers: The two inner planets have a 3:5 ratio, since the super-Earth takes 3 days to orbit around its star and the closer sub-Neptune takes 5 days. (It's a very small star.) The ratio between that middle sub-Neptune and the outer one (which has an 11-day orbit) is about 2:1.</p><p><span>"These planets line up like pearls on a string," Günther said. "That's a very interesting thing, because it lets us study their dynamical behavior. And you can almost expect, if there are more planets, the next one would be somewhere further out, at another integer ratio."</span></p><p><span>Similar math shows up in planets orbiting other stars and in the moons of Jupiter.</span></p><h2>More distant planets are waiting to be found</h2><p>The TOI-270 star is ideal for studying these planets' properties because it's relatively close to Earth and therefore bright. Plus, although it's a type of dwarf star that normally has lots of flares and solar storms,&#xa0; TOI-270 is unusually quiet because it's old and has become less active.&#xa0;</p><p>Researchers plan to continue studying the star system with other tools in the future, including the James Webb Space Telescope, which is expected to launch in 2021.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>TESS, meanwhile, is <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/nasa-s-tess-mission-completes-first-year-of-survey-turns-to-northern-sky">turning its attention</a> to the northern half of the sky, after focusing on the southern sky for the last year.</p><div></div><div><div style="position:relative; padding-bottom:calc(56.25% + 44px)"></div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-super-earth-2018-6">Super-Earths are real and they could be an even better place for life than Earth</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

NASA's newest planet-hunting telescope just discovered a 'super-Earth' and 2 'sub-Neptunes' less than 75 light-years away - among the closest exoplanets ever found

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>An international team of astronomers has discovered three Earth-sized exoplanets, all orbiting the same star, just 40 light-years from us, the&#xa0;<span>16-nation intergovernmental research organization <a href="http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1615/">ESO reported on Monday</a></span>.<p>The scientists have deemed all three planets potentially habitable, an exciting turn in the hunt for exoplanets,&#xa0;a&#xa0;term for<span>&#xa0;planets that orbit a star other than our&#xa0;sun. And it&#xa0;</span>could bring us closer to finding extraterrestrial life.</p><h2><strong>The hunt for aliens</strong></h2><p>The host star is an ultra-cool dwarf star - a type of cool, red star. Most of the time, these stars are too small and faint to be detected by optical telescopes, and this star is no exception.</p><p>"Why are we trying to detect Earth-like planets around the smallest and coolest stars in the solar neighborhood? The reason is simple: systems around these tiny stars are the only places where we can detect life on an Earth-sized exoplanet with our current technology," Michaël Gillon, lead author of the paper presenting the discovery, said in an ESO <a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/emb_releases/2016-05/e-tph042916.php">press release</a>. "So if we want to find life elsewhere in the Universe, this is where we should start to look."</p><p>The astronomers discovered the planets using a telescope in Chile called TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST).</p><p>The telescope is designed to focus on nearby dwarf stars and search for planets orbiting them. Because light from the star is dimming at regular intervals, it suggested that several planets were orbiting the star.</p><p>The star is about an eighth the size of the sun, half the temperature and almost 2,000 times fainter. This is the first time astronomers have ever found any planets orbiting a star this small and dim.</p><p><div><div id="container"></div><div id="player"></div><div id="pod"></div></div></p><h2 class="embed-spacer"><strong>Sweet spots</strong></h2><p class="embed-spacer">The scientists determined that the third planet, located furthest from its star, might be within the star's habitable zone.</p><p class="embed-spacer">Because of their closeness to the star, the other two planets are likely tidally locked, with one side always facing the star and the other always facing away.</p><p class="embed-spacer">Although the sides facing the star would be too hot to host any lifeforms and the sides facing away would be too cold and dark, the planets might contain "sweet spots." If the planets have atmospheres or even possibly oceans, heat from the star might be more evenly distributed, creating regions that just might be suitable for life.</p><p class="embed-spacer">"The kind of planets we've found are very exciting from the perspective of searching for life in the universe beyond Earth," Adam Burgasser, a professor of physics at the University of California&#xa0;San Diego's Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, said in a&#xa0;<a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-05/uoc--tep042816.php">press release</a>.</p><p class="embed-spacer">Scientists will need to further study the planets to determine if they are actually capable of harboring life.</p><p class="embed-spacer">One way they'll do this is by looking at the effect that the atmosphere of the planets has on the light reaching Earth. Because of the star's size and dimness, it won't drown out these planetary signals, allowing scientists to get a better look.</p><p class="embed-spacer">Scientists should eventually be able to study their composition and atmosphere more deeply as they look for signals of life.</p><p>"These planets are so close, and their star so small, we can study their atmosphere and composition, and further down the road, which is within our generation, assess if they are actually inhabited," co-author Julien de Wit, a postdoc in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences said in an MIT <a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/emb_releases/2016-05/miot-sdp042816.php">press release</a>.</p><p>These findings open the door for future studies of other ultra-cool dwarf stars, which are long-lived and common in the Milky Way. Around three fourths of all stars and 15% of the stars near to the Sun are ultra-cool dwarf stars.</p><p>With the help of several giant telescopes that are under construction, de Wit says, scientists will soon be able to study the atmospheric composition of these planets to explore them for water and traces of biological activity.</p><p>The full results were published Monday, May 2 in the journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature17448.html">Nature</a>.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/exoplanets-signs-life-science-eso-nasa-space-2016-5">Astronomers say these newly-discovered planets are the best places to search for aliens</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="M2M3k4MzE6GHlQLi6L1zcmZtuJ-zfSf0" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

3 newly-discovered nearby planets are a game changer in the hunt for alien life

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>ESO / M. Kornmesser</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>On May 2, an international team of astronomers announced that they had discovered three Earth-sized exoplanets, all orbiting the same star (TRAPPIST-1) just 40 light-years from us.</p><p>The scientists determined that all three planets are potentially habitable based on their size and temperature.</p><p>Now, the same team has discovered that the two innermost planets are rocky and have compact atmospheres, making them less like the hostile planet of Jupiter and more like the rocky planets of Earth, Venus, and Mars. This makes the prospect of life lurking in these faraway worlds even stronger. The researchers published their results today in Nature.</p><p>The findings were made just two days after the team announced that it had found the planetary system.</p><h2><strong>A promising place to detect alien life</strong></h2><p>Systems like this are promising places to detect alien life, Michaël Gillon, lead author of the paper presenting the discovery, said in an ESO <a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/emb_releases/2016-05/e-tph042916.php"> press release </a> .</p><p>The host star is an ultracool dwarf star - a type of cool, red star. Most of the time these stars are too small and faint to be detected by optical telescopes, and this star is no exception.</p><p>"Why are we trying to detect Earth-like planets around the smallest and coolest stars in the solar neighborhood? The reason is simple: systems around these tiny stars are the only places where we can detect life on an Earth-sized exoplanet with our current technology," Gillon said.</p><p>Because of their closeness to the star, the two innermost planets are likely tidally locked, with one side always facing the star and the other always facing away.</p><p>Although the sides facing the star would be too hot to host any lifeforms and the sides facing away would be too cold and dark, the planets might contain "sweet spots." If the planets have atmospheres or even possibly oceans, heat from the star might be more evenly distributed, creating regions that just might be suitable for life.</p><h2><strong>A double transit</strong></h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>ESO/M. Kornmesser/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>To further investigate the promising planets, the researchers pointed NASA's Hubble Space Telescope at TRAPPIST-1 just in time to catch a double transit, which is when two planets pass in front of the same star at almost the same time.</p><p>"We thought, maybe we could see if people at Hubble would give us time to do this observation, so we wrote the proposal in less than 24 hours, sent it out, and it was reviewed immediately," Julien de Wit, a postdoc in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, said in an MIT press release. "Now for the first time we have spectroscopic observations of a double transit, which allows us to get <a href="http://news.mit.edu/">insight on the atmosphere of both planets at the same time</a>."</p><p>The dips in starlight that occurred when the planets crossed in front of the star indicated that the planets have compact atmospheres, which are more suitable to life.</p><p>"We can say that these planets are rocky. Now the question is, what kind of atmosphere do they have?" de Wit said. "The plausible scenarios include something like Venus, where the atmosphere is dominated by carbon dioxide, or an Earth-like atmosphere with heavy clouds, or even something like Mars with a depleted atmosphere. The next step is to try to disentangle all these possible scenarios that exist for these terrestrial planets."</p>     <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/exoplanets-signs-life-science-eso-nasa-space-2016-5">Astronomers say these newly discovered planets are the best places to search for aliens</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="M2M3k4MzE6GHlQLi6L1zcmZtuJ-zfSf0" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

2 of the best places to hunt for alien life just became even more promising

<ul><li>NASA's <keyword id="1228017" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Spitzer-Space-Telescope">Spitzer Space Telescope</keyword> has been observing a planet 48.6 light years away from Earth. </li><li>Dubbed LHS 3844b, the planet has no atmosphere but holds to key to understanding where scientists should be looking for signs on <keyword id="2255377" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="life-beyond-Earth">life beyond Earth</keyword>. </li><li>This is the first time that NASA has been able to observe a planet without an atmosphere that orbiting a red dwarf star.</li></ul>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/10-Mind-Bending-Photos-From-The-Spitzer-Telescope/articleshow/22106180.cms">Spitzer Space Telescope</a> has been observing a planet that’s 1.3 times larger than the Earth and 48.6 light years away. And, it completes its orbit in a mere 11 hours. <br /><br />But, it has one critical flaw — no atmosphere.<br /><br />The Earth’s atmosphere supports life — but not every planet has the same protective layer around it. It is especially true with planets that orbit small stars.<br /><br />Officially named LHS 3844b, it is the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/8-of-the-worlds-coolest-telescopes-that-are-changing-the-way-that-we-look-at-the-universe/slidelist/53305793.cms">first planet</a> without an atmosphere orbiting a red dwarf star, to ever be observed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (<a href="https://www.space.com/rocky-alien-planet-with-no-atmosphere-discovery.html">NASA</a>) after being spotted by the Transiting Exoplanet Satellite Survey (TESS) in 2018.<br /><br /><strong>What breaks or makes a planet<br /></strong><br />The lack of an atmosphere around LHS 3844b may not be able to support life but it gives scientists some understanding around what kind of factors can make or break a planetary atmosphere — especially since we’re always on the hunt for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/Astronomers-have-discovered-a-potentially-habitable-world-just-31-light-years-away-thanks-to-NASAs-planet-hunting-telescope/articleshow/70473179.cms">habitable planets beyond our own Solar System.</a><br /><br />"We've got lots of theories about how planetary atmospheres fare around M dwarfs, but we haven't been able to study them empirically," states Laura Kriedberg, a researcher at the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and lead author of the study.<br /><br />"Now, with LHS 3844b, we have a terrestrial planet outside our solar system where for the first time we can determine observationally that an atmosphere is not present," explains Kriedberg.<br /><br /><strong>Volcano and ashes</strong><br /><br />Unlike most planets that are close to a star, LHS 3844b is actually ‘quite dark’, according to Renyu Hu, an exoplanet scientist with NASA and co-author of the study published in Nature.<br /><br />Spitzer and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have observed <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/Clouds-on-Uranus-smell-like-farts-astronomers-have-confirmed-a-clue-that-there-was-a-big-shakeup-early-in-the-solar-system/articleshow/63888299.cms">gas planets</a> and their atmospheres in the past, but this is the first time that they’ve used light — or lack thereof — to gather data about a planet.<br /><br />The fact that LHS 3844b doesn’t have an atmosphere makes it more like the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/nasa-discover-water-depletion-on-the-moon/articleshow/68902726.cms">Moon</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/the-fascinating-and-terrible-things-that-would-happen-to-you-if-you-tried-to-fly-on-jupiter-and-other-planets/Planes-use-the-air-on-Earth-to-generate-a-difference-in-pressure-below-and-above-the-wings-which-produces-lift-But-theres-no-atmosphere-on-Mercury-which-means-you-couldnt-even-glide-on-it-If-you-drove-the-plane-off-of-a-cliff-youd-fall-and-crash-like-this/slideshow/54705431.cms">Mercury</a>  rather than the Earth. <br /><br />Even it’s surface is covered in volcanic residue similar to the material found on the lunar surface called mare.<br /><br /><strong>Hot and cold<br /></strong><br />The similarities between LHS 3844b and the Moon don’t stop at both of them being covered in ancient volcanic ash. They both have a ‘<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/there-is-a-dark-side-of-the-moon-but-you-are-probably-using-the-term-incorrectly-all-of-the-time/articleshow/67400466.cms">dark side</a>’ as well.<br /><br />The Moon, in its orbit of Earth, always has one side that’s facing the planet and one side that’s permanently facing away. <br /><br />The same ‘tidal lock’ has been observed on the planet where its ‘dayside’ heats up 770 degrees Celcius and the ‘night side’ never faces the star.<br /><br />Because there’s no atmosphere — meaning no winds, no air and no movement — none of that heat gets dispersed around the planet and both sides continue to exhibit temperatures that are poles apart.<br /><br /><strong>Exceptional yet common<br /></strong><br />Red dwarves themselves aren’t uncommon as the smallest and the coolest of the star categories. In fact, they make up three quarters of the stars in the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/the-supermassive-black-hole-at-the-center-of-our-galaxy-suddenly-lit-up-brighter-than-scientists-had-ever-seen-and-nobody-knows-why/articleshow/70684341.cms">Milky Way</a>.<br /><br />Despite their abundance, they aren’t as easy to observe. Flickering at around 1/10,000 of the Sun’s brightness, most of them are invisible to the naked eye.<br /><br />Because they’re so common, they’re also host to a majority of the planets in any particular galaxy, including our own. Understanding how they work and function is critical to figuring out where to look for life in the vast universe.<br /><br /><strong>See also:</strong><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/our-very-own-black-hole-in-the-milky-way-doesnt-quite-eat-up-everything/articleshow/69684893.cms">Our very own black hole in the Milky Way doesn’t quite eat up ‘everything’</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/Astronomers-have-discovered-a-potentially-habitable-world-just-31-light-years-away-thanks-to-NASAs-planet-hunting-telescope/articleshow/70473179.cms">Astronomers have discovered a potentially habitable world just 31 light-years away, thanks to NASA's planet-hunting telescope</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/nasa-spots-marsquake-on-insight-lander-mission/articleshow/69018433.cms">NASA detects a quake on Mars for the very first time — using sound</a><br />

A new ‘dark’ planet on NASA’s radar might hold the key to what makes or breaks a planet

<br /><ul><li>Hygiea, classified as an asteroid so far, might actually be a dwarf planet. <br /></li><li>The European Southern Observatory has been able to confirm that Hygiea has a spherical shape.<br /></li><li>But, Hygiea is missing a large impact crater normally found on asteroids after they have broken off from the parent asteroid.<br /></li></ul>The asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars is home to many asteroids and planets. Now European Southern Observatory (<a href="https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1918/">ESO</a>) thinks one of the objects floating along the main belt might be the <keyword id="8270160" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="smallest-dwarf-planet">smallest dwarf planet</keyword> in our solar system — an asteroid known as Hygiea.<br /><br />Hygiea isn’t a new discovery but the fact that it meets the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) requirements to be classified as a dwarf planet is new.<br /><br />It orbits the Sun, and not another planet, so that rules it out from being a Moon. But unlike an actual planet, it hasn’t pushed away or pulled in any of the objects that are cluttering its orbit.<br /><br />ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) was able to capture a third detail that puts Hygiea in the running for a dwarf planet — it has just enough mass for its gravity to pull it together in a spherical shape.<br /><br />"Thanks to the unique capability of the SPHERE instrument on the VLT, which is one of the most powerful imaging systems in the world, we could resolve Hygiea’s shape, which turns out to be nearly spherical," said lead researcher Pierre Vernazza.<br /><br /><strong>Dwarf planets in the universe’s remnants<br /></strong><br />When the big bang first happened and planets were formed, the asteroid belt basically contained whatever was left over. <br /><br />The clumps could have formed a planet but scientists believe that Jupiter’s gravity was so strong that the space objects continued to orbit the Sun instead, colliding every so often.<br /><br />These collisions led to bigger parent bodies breaking into smaller asteroids. Hygiea is supposed to be a part of a 7000 member family and it’s separation from the parent space object should have left a large impact crater — but it’s nowhere to be found.<br /><br />"This result came as a real surprise as we were expecting the presence of a large impact basin, as is the case on Vesta," says Vernazza.<br /><br />According to the team’s deductions, it’s possible that Hygiea’s parent asteroid collided into a large object between 75 to 150 kilometers wide and the resulting collision was so violent that it completely shattered it.<br /><br />Their study states that as the left-over pieces of the collision reassembled, Hygiea got its round shape — fulfilling the third parameter to be be classified as a dwarf planet.<br /><br /><strong>See also:</strong><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/news/16-recently-discovered-exoplanets-could-offer-our-best-chance-of-finding-alien-life-outside-the-solar-system/articleshow/71397812.cms">16 recently discovered exoplanets could offer our best chance of finding alien life outside the solar system</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/a-ridiculous-yet-simple-animation-by-a-nasa-scientist-shows-how-long-it-takes-light-to-reach-pluto-if-you-plan-to-watch-it-take-a-day-off-work-/articleshow/67905830.cms">Pluto has a heart of ice that might not be so frozen after all</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/a-ridiculous-yet-simple-animation-by-a-nasa-scientist-shows-how-long-it-takes-light-to-reach-pluto-if-you-plan-to-watch-it-take-a-day-off-work-/articleshow/67905830.cms">A 'ridiculous' yet simple animation by a NASA scientist shows how long it takes light to reach Pluto. If you plan to watch it, take a day off work</a><br />

The smallest dwarf planet in our solar system was hiding in the asteroid belt

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/8497927563/in/set-72157632828636947">NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington</a></span></p><p class="caption">This image of Mercury uses enhanced colors to emphasize chemical, mineralogical, and physical differences on the planet's surface.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/mercury">Mercury</a> will glide across our view of the sun on November 11. The transit won't happen again until 2032. </li><li>To watch, you'll need a telescope or binoculars equipped with a certified solar filter to protect your eyes from damage. Don't ever <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-happens-when-you-stare-at-sun-2018-5">look directly at the sun</a>.</li><li>Here's everything you need to know about the upcoming Mercury transit.</li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</strong></li></ul><p>On Monday, November 11, Mercury will glide across our view of the sun in a rare celestial treat.</p><p>This event is called a "transit," and it happens when a planet passes between Earth and its star. Within our own solar system, we only see transits of Venus and Mercury transits, since those are the only planets between us and the sun. But when it comes to other star systems, NASA telescopes can hunt for new exoplanets by watching for tiny dips in a star's brightness caused by transits of orbiting planets. </p><p>We won't see a Mercury transit again until 2032. Mercury only makes this transit about 13 times per century.</p><p>The last transit was in 2016; NASA satellites recorded footage (below) of the tiny planet crossing the blazing disk of the sun.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/news/2019/11/7/a-teachable-moment-in-the-sky-the-transit-of-mercury/">NASA</a></span></p><p class="caption">On May 9, 2016, Mercury passed directly between the sun and Earth in a transit that lasted more than seven hours.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system (sorry, Pluto doesn't count), so to watch the transit, you'd need special equipment as well as protection for your eyes.</p><h2>How to watch the Mercury transit</h2><p>Mercury will take five-and-a-half hours to cross in front of the sun on Monday. </p><p>You should not try to watch this event directly, since you'd risk <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-happens-when-you-stare-at-sun-2018-5">severe eye damage</a>. (You wouldn't be able to see much with your naked eyes, anyway.) Instead, you'll need a telescope or binoculars with a <a href="https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/safety">certified solar filter</a>. Make sure the solar filter is not scratched or damaged before turning your lens to the sun.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/events/2019/11/11/watch-the-transit-of-mercury-2019/">NASA</a></span></p><p class="caption">The upcoming Mercury transit will take about five-and-a-half hours.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Many local <a href="https://informal.jpl.nasa.gov/museum/Visit">museums</a> and <a href="https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/clubs-and-events.cfm">astronomy clubs</a> will be hosting viewing parties with all the safety equipment you need. </p><p>The transit will begin at 7:35 a.m. EST - just after sunrise on the US East Coast. Viewers there will be able to watch the entire transit, as will people in Central and South America and some parts of West Africa.</p><p>The map below shows which parts of the world will get to see the event.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/events/2019/11/11/watch-the-transit-of-mercury-2019/">NASA/JPL</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The rest of the US will see Mercury's transit at sunrise, and Europe, Africa, and the Middle East will catch it at sunset. Australia and most of Asia are out of luck.</p><p>However, anyone can watch the transit on a <a href="http://sdoisgo.blogspot.com/2019/11/mercury-transit-this-monday.html">livestream</a> from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, a sun-orbiting spacecraft. The <a href="https://www.virtualtelescope.eu/">Virtual Telescope Project</a> has also promised live coverage from Earth-based telescopes.</p><p>Don't get your hopes up for a Venus transit next - that won't happen until 2117.</p>     <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mercury-transit-sun-science-nasa-space-2016-5">Watch time-lapse video of a rare space event that won't happen again until 2019</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Mercury is about to travel across the sun for the last time until 2032. Here's how to watch the rare transit.

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>Scientists have detected water vapor on a potentially habitable planet for the first time.</li><li>The planet, named K2-18 b, is a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-tess-telescope-finds-nearby-super-earth-sub-neptunes-2019-7">super-Earth</a> that orbits a red dwarf star 110 light-years away.</li><li>K2-18 b is the only known planet <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/extrasolar-planet-nasa-discoveries-data-animated-map-2019-7">outside our solar system</a> with water, an atmosphere, and a temperature range that could support liquid water on its surface. That makes it our "best candidate for habitability," a researcher said.</li><li>Researchers will be able to learn more about this planet and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-tess-telescope-habitable-world-31-light-years-away-2019-7">others like it</a> with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-10-year-plan-lunar-base-saturn-moon-2019-7#the-james-webb-space-telescope-which-has-a-massive-18-panel-mirror-will-scan-the-universe-for-life-hosting-planets-and-attempt-to-look-back-in-time-to-photograph-the-big-bang-15">future high-powered telescopes</a> like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/nasa">NASA's</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasas-ten-billion-dollar-telescope-built-after-decade-of-delays">James Webb Space Telescope</a>.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>Scientists have detected water vapor in the atmosphere of a potentially habitable planet for the first time ever.</p><p>At twice the size of the Earth and eight times our planet's mass, K2-18 b is considered a super-Earth. It orbits within its red dwarf star's habitable zone - the range of distances in which liquid water can exist on a planet's surface.</p><p>"This is the only planet right now that we know outside the solar system that has the correct temperature to support water. It has an atmosphere, and it has water in it, making this planet the best candidate for habitability that we know," Angelos Tsiaris, the lead author of a <a href="https://nature.com/articles/s41550-019-0878-9">paper</a> on the finding, said in a press call. "We were extremely excited to see these results."</p><p>The Kepler Space Telescope first discovered K2-18 b, which is just 110 light-years away from us, in 2015. But the <a href="https://nature.com/articles/s41550-019-0878-9">new study about the planet's water vapor</a>, published Wednesday in the journal Nature Astronomy, is a major step towards understanding what habitable planets look like outside our solar system.&#xa0;</p><p>For now, scientists think super-Earths are the most common type of planet in the Milky Way galaxy - and red dwarfs are the smallest, coolest, longest-lived, and most common type of star - which means there could be more habitable, water-containing exoplanets like this one out there. None have been confirmed yet, however.</p><h2>Meet K2-18 b</h2><p>K2-18 b orbits its tiny red dwarf star every 33 days. Researchers think it's either a rocky planet like Earth, or an icy planet with high concentrations of water in its interior. It might have clouds, but if so, scientists' observations suggest they aren't very thick.</p><p>&#xa0;</p><p>Though K2-18 b is located much closer to its star than Earth is to the sun, the planet only receives slightly more radiation than Earth, since its star is much smaller and cooler than our sun. Researchers' calculations also show the planet has a similar temperature to Earth: somewhere in the range of about -99 degrees to 116 degrees Fahrenheit.</p><p>To determine the makeup of K2-18 b's atmosphere, the researchers behind the new study used data from the Hubble Space Telescope to analyze the starlight filtering through its atmosphere. For the first time ever, they detected the signature of water molecules.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>The data also indicated the presence of hydrogen and helium in the atmosphere.</p><h2>The importance of an atmosphere</h2><p>An atmosphere keeps a planet's surface warm and protects it from its star's radiation. Life on Earth would not be possible without our atmosphere, which also provides many of the chemicals essential to life, like carbon and nitrogen.</p><p>K2-18 b is ripe for continued study, since its water vapor is probably not going anywhere for a while, the researchers said. Its star is relatively inactive, and hasn't put out any flares since scientists started observing the system.</p><p>Plus, the fact that the planet's atmosphere contains hydrogen also bodes well for the continued presence of water vapor - hydrogen is much lighter, so it would be the first molecule to go if K2-18 b's atmosphere were to get stripped away by radiation.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>"Water can stay quite long because super-Earths can retain their atmosphere for a longer time, because they have a bigger gravity," Giovanna Tinetti, a physicist who co-authored the paper, said in the press call.</p><p>She contrasted this planet's atmosphere with that of Mars. The red planet is much smaller and has a weaker gravitational pull than Earth, so although it once had an atmosphere (and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-mars-looked-like-with-water-2015-3">probably liquid water</a>), Mars was too small and weak to hang onto it. Over time, the flow of charged particles and plasma from the sun stripped Mars' atmosphere away.</p><h2>Planets like K2-18 b can help redefine habitability</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>K2-18 b's atmosphere is very different from Earth's, since it's made up mostly of hydrogen, unlike our own nitrogen-rich atmosphere. But the scientists behind the new study said life could still emerge in those conditions (at least based on our limited information right now).</p><p>"Habitability as we understand it is a very Earth-centric concept. So we know one world that is habitable, which is our own Earth now, and now we have a potentially second one that might be habitable," Ingo Waldmann, an exoplanet researcher who co-authored the paper, said. "To actually understand how habitability evolves in a hydrogen-rich atmosphere is going to be a very intense subject of study over the next 10 years."</p><p>The researchers said scientists will need to start by determining the pressure of K2-18 b's atmosphere and the quantity of water within it. For now, there's no way to know what conditions on its surface are like.&#xa0;</p><p>"With the current data, we can only detect the existence of an atmosphere and the existence of water," Tsiaris said.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>However, the researchers behind another study - which was <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.04642">made available online</a> Tuesday but has not been peer reviewed - told <a href="https://www.space.com/water-vapor-rain-clouds-exoplanet-k2-18b.html">Space.com</a> that the data indicates the presence of liquid water clouds that might produce rain on K2-18 b. They also suggested that the planet's atmosphere is too thick and exerts too much pressure for life as we know it to exist on its surface.&#xa0;</p><p>Tsiaris said that NASA's forthcoming James Webb Telescope, which is slated to launch in 2021, and the European Space Agency's ARIEL telescope, which is slated to launch in 2028, will be able to gather much more data on K2-18 b. That's because the new tools will be able to observe light across a broader range of wavelengths.&#xa0;</p><p>That information could then improve scientists' search for more planets like K2-18 b.</p><p>"This is hopefully just one of many that we will find - many super-Earths going around dwarf stars," Waldmann said. "Then we can actually start looking into studies of what habitability actually means compared to Earth or compared to other super-Earths."</p><div><div style="position:relative; padding-bottom:calc(56.25% + 44px)"></div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/humans-contact-aliens-send-signals-super-earth-gj-273b-meti-2017-11">We sent a signal to make contact with aliens on a distant 'Super Earth' - here's what we said</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Scientists have discovered water vapor on a potentially habitable super-Earth for the first time. That planet is now our best bet for finding alien life.

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/extrasolar-planet-earthlike-exoplanet-on-background-600502655">Shutterstock</a></span></p><p class="caption">An illustration of Earth-like exoplanets</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>Astronomers have detected what may be four roughly Earth-size planets orbiting Tau Ceti, the nearest sun-like star.</strong></li><li><strong>Two of the worlds appear to orbit within Tau Ceti's habitable zone, though a cloud of debris and asteroids may pose a threat to any life on them.</strong></li><li><strong>If the result is confirmed, independent astronomers say it would be "astonishing.</strong></li></ul><p>Astronomers may have just hit a crucial milestone in the search for other Earth-like planets. Scientists from the University of Hertfordshire and University of California, Santa Cruz announced they've discovered four planets orbiting a nearby, sun-like star - two of which may be habitable.</p><p>Researchers have turned up thousands of planet candidates in recent years, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/new-exoplanets-nasa-kepler-mission-data-2017-6">about 10</a> of which may be small, rocky, and habitable like the Earth. You'd think most of these worlds would orbit suns like ours, but that's not the case, since such stars are so big and bright that they easily drown out the faint signals of tiny planets.</p><p>That's why the new discovery of four roughly Earth-size worlds  - some 12 light-years away from our solar system - is all the more exciting.</p><p>"If true this discovery is absolutely phenomenal - that one of our nearest neighboring sun-like stars might have rocky worlds," <a href="http://www.saraseager.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sara Seager</a>, a planetary scientist at MIT who wasn't involved in the research, told Business Insider in an email.</p><h2>Worlds in the closest sun-like solar system</h2><p>The suspected planets all orbit Tau Ceti, a star located 11.9 light-years away from us, according to a forthcoming study in The Astrophysical Journal. (You can read a pre-print version of the paper <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1708.02051" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">on arXiv</a>.)</p><p>The star is about three-quarters the mass of the sun, but its brightness and color are very sun-like. It's the closest sun-like star to Earth.</p><p>The planets' sizes aren't known yet, but they're estimated to have about 1.7 times the Earth's mass. That would make them the smallest planets ever detected around a distant sun-like star, according to a press release emailed by the University of Hertfordshire.</p><p>Two of the four worlds orbit in a searing-hot zone close to Tau Ceti. The other two "super-Earths" seem to orbit within a "Goldilocks" habitable zone, where water on the surface can be liquid (rather than frozen solid or boiled away), according to <a href="https://news.ucsc.edu/2017/08/tau-ceti-planets.html">a press release</a> by the University of California Santa Cruz.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Fabo Feng/University of Hertfordshire</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Two things make this particular discovery stunning to astronomers like Seager.</p><p>First, our solar system is the only place we know where life exists, which means that sun-like stars may be the best places to look for life (though there is some debate about whether <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/red-dwarf-planets-proxima-b-aliens-2016-8/">smaller, cooler red dwarf stars</a> could be better to explore).</p><p>Second, it's incredibly difficult to spy a relatively tiny planet in the figurative shadow of a sun-like star.</p><p>"Earth is so small in mass compared to its host sun-like star that finding the signal amidst the noise is really like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack," Seager added. "The authors have come up with a special technique to get rid of the noise to find the signal. It's always a tricky situation to look for very weak signals."</p><h2>Scouting for tiny wobbles</h2><p>Most planets are detected by a "<a href="http://archive.seti.org/seti/seti-science/detecting_new/wobble_method.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wobble method</a>," where a planet slightly jerks around its star.</p><p>Such wobbles or wiggles (technically called Doppler shifts) come from planets sharing a center of gravity that doesn't reside precisely in the middle of a star. Jupiter, for example, actually <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jupiter-orbits-center-mass-near-sun-2017-7">orbits a spot</a> some 30,000 miles above the sun's surface - and not in a perfect circle.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/satellites-to-see-mercury-enter-spotlight-on-may-9">NASA/SDO; Business Insider</a></span></p><p class="caption">A to-scale illustration of where the sun-Jupiter barycenter is located.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>This wobbling causes slight speeding up and slowing down of a star as a planet orbits it, leaving an imprint on the light the star emits.</p><p>In their new study, the team detected variations on the order of 30 centimeters per second - a gap of about 2/3 of a mile per hour. Astronomers think they'll need a sensitivity three times better (about 0.2 mph) to reliably detect Earth analogs around sun-like stars.</p><p>"We're getting tantalizingly close to observing the correct limits required for detecting Earth-like planets," <a href="http://researchprofiles.herts.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/fabo-feng(acca848b-f213-4814-9571-48b80b525e74).html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Fabo Feng</a>, an astrophysicist at the University of Hertfordshire who led the research, said in the press release. "Our detection of such weak wobbles is a milestone in the search for Earth analogs and the understanding of the Earth's habitability through comparison with these [new planets]."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.keckobservatory.org/fans">W.M. Keck Observatory</a></span></p><p class="caption">The Keck I and Keck II telescopes on Mauna Kea in Hawaii.</p></div><p></p></div></div>To find the planets, it took Feng and his colleagues four years to sift through, analyze, and model the data gathered by two telescope instruments: the European Southern Observatory's <a href="https://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/lasilla/instruments/harps.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">HARPS spectrograph</a> in Chile and the W.M. Keck Observatory's <a href="https://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/inst/hires/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">HiRes instrument</a> in Hawaii.</p><p>Seager emphasized that "it would take a long time" for other astronomers to replicate and verify the discovery.</p><p>"There is no sugar-coating how hard it is to find an Earth-mass planet signal in a sun-like star, due to star noise and instrument noise," Seager said.</p><h2>Two hits to habitability</h2><p>Small, rocky worlds in a habitable zone <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/goldilocks-exoplanet-habitability-internal-heat-2016-8">aren't necessarily cozy environments for life</a>.</p><p>One possible problem with Tau Ceti's two habitable-zone-worlds is their unknown size.</p><p>"They surely don't conclude that the four planets are Earth-sized, because the method they used to detect them provides no information on their sizes," Michaël Gillon, an astronomer at the Université de Liège who wasn't involved in the study, told Business Insider in an email. (Gillon helped with the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/earth-like-planets-seven-trappist-1-system-2017-02">discovery of the seven Earth-size planets</a> orbiting the TRAPPIST-1 star system.)</p><p>"All they can say is that each planet is more massive than X Earth-masses," he said. In the case of Tau Ceti, this lower limit seems to be about 1.7 times as hefty as Earth, and it's uncertain if complex life could thrive on a planet like this.</p><p>Another problem is the debris.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA06939">NASA/JPL-Caltech</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>In fact, estimates suggests that the Tau Ceti system has r<a href="https://www.wired.com/2012/12/5-exoplanets-tau-ceti/">oughly 10 times the mass of asteroids (and dust)</a> than our solar system.</p><p>That's not a great sign, because asteroid impacts are known to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-earth-will-end-apocalypse-2016-11">wipe out vast numbers of species</a>.</p><p>Still, Seager characterized the result as "astonishing." Once the planets are confirmed by other researchers, she added, it could be "a tremendous milestone en route to finding our Earth twin."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/stephen-hawking-warning-space-aliens-seti-2016-12">Stephen Hawking warned us about contacting aliens, but this astronomer says it's 'too late'</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

You Searched For "smallest exoplanet" and got 10 results

New Exoplanet Is A 'Virtual Twin Of Earth'

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NASA's newest planet-hunting telescope just discovered a 'super-Earth' and 2 'sub-Neptunes' less than 75 light-years away - among the closest exoplanets ever found

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3 newly-discovered nearby planets are a game changer in the hunt for alien life

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2 of the best places to hunt for alien life just became even more promising

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A new ‘dark’ planet on NASA’s radar might hold the key to what makes or breaks a planet

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The smallest dwarf planet in our solar system was hiding in the asteroid belt

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Mercury is about to travel across the sun for the last time until 2032. Here's how to watch the rare transit.

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Scientists have discovered water vapor on a potentially habitable super-Earth for the first time. That planet is now our best bet for finding alien life.

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An 'absolutely phenomenal' discovery hints 4 Earth-size planets may orbit the closest sun to our own

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