An Amazing Discovery in a Nearby Red Dwarf Star System
They are pretty close to the same size as our planet, but are they habitable?
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00:00Are there other planets like ours?
00:06So far, not so much.
00:07But astronomers are always on the lookout for Earth-like planets that may harbor life.
00:12And recently astronomers discovered two such planets, or what are often referred to as
00:16super-Earths.
00:17And they're actually pretty close.
00:19Super-Earths are planets that are larger than ours, but smaller than ice giants like Neptune.
00:23They're also rocky and mineral-laden, rather than made of gas like Jupiter.
00:27And recently the two exoplanets, which are 1.2 and 1.5 times the size of Earth, were
00:32discovered orbiting a red dwarf star, only 33 light-years away.
00:36The planets were discovered when they passed between human telescopes and their own star,
00:40called HD 260655, blocking the red dwarf's light and allowing us to detect them.
00:45And they do that quite frequently, as a year on either of the orbiting worlds is 2.8 and
00:505.7 Earth days respectively, as that's how long it takes each of them to travel around
00:55the dim star.
00:56But that also means they aren't likely habitable, as they're too close to their star to maintain
01:00liquid water, with each planet likely having surface temperatures of 543 degrees and 816
01:07degrees Fahrenheit, respectively.