For planet-hunters, finding an Earth-sized exoplanet must be special. NASA estimates there are about 100 billion planets in the Milky Way, but the large majority of the 5,000+ exoplanets we’ve found are extremely inhospitable. So finding one that’s similar to ours is kind of comforting. In this case, it’s even more interesting because it’s the … Continue reading 'TESS has Found A Second Earth-Sized World in This System. Exoplanet Science is Maturing'
TOI 700-e is in the star’s habitable zone, a region where liquid water could exist on the planet’s surface given the right atmospheric conditions. It’s about 95% of Earth’s size, and it’s probably also rocky. Its sibling, TOI 700-d, is also a rocky planet about 1.1 times the size of Earth that orbits in the star’s habitable zone. The fact that there are two rocky planets about the same size as Earth, both in the habitable zone, puts the TOI 700 system in a rare category.
The OHZ is based on estimates of when Venus and Mars may have had liquid surface water, and the CHZ boundaries are defined by the runaway and maximum greenhouse limits. “The field of exoplanets has come great lengths over the past several decades,” the authors write in their paper. “In the early days of exoplanet science, the focus was largely on individual planet detections, showing that these worlds even exist and that astronomers are capable of detecting them.”
Now we know that multi-planet systems like ours are common. We also know that Earth-size planets in habitable zones are more common than we once thought, something we could only wonder about wistfully ten years ago. One of the JWST’s objectives is to study exoplanet atmospheres, and it’ll teach us a lot more about them. But the JWST is busy and has a long list of targets. Who knows if the planets in the TOI system will be on its list?“With a radius of 0.953 Earth radii, we found that TOI-700-e is likely a rocky planet with a probability of 87%,” they write. They also give a mass estimate of 0.845 Earth masses, though they acknowledge the difficulty in determining that.
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NASA’s TESS spots a second potentially habitable Earth-sized planetNASA's TESS has discovered what astronomers believe could be a second possibly habitable Earth-sized planet in the system TOI 700.
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Second potentially habitable Earth-size planet found orbiting nearby starThe exoplanet exists in their star's habitable zone, or just the right distance from the star that liquid water might potentially exist on their surfaces.
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Second potentially habitable Earth-size planet found orbiting nearby starThe exoplanet exists in their star's habitable zone, or just the right distance from the star that liquid water might potentially exist on their surfaces.
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Second potentially habitable Earth-size planet found orbiting nearby starThe exoplanet exists in their star's habitable zone, or just the right distance from the star that liquid water might potentially exist on their surfaces.
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Second potentially habitable Earth-size planet found orbiting nearby starThe exoplanet exists in their star's habitable zone, or just the right distance from the star that liquid water might potentially exist on their surfaces.
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Second potentially habitable Earth-size planet found orbiting nearby starThe exoplanet exists in their star's habitable zone, or just the right distance from the star that liquid water might potentially exist on their surfaces.
Read more »