It is considered “the most important planet ever discovered outside the solar system”.
Recently, astronomers discovered a new planet just 39 light years from us. The peculiarity is that its size is quite similar to that of the Earth.
According to Nature, the newly discovered planet is called GJ1132b. And the “author” of this important discovery is astronomer David Charbonneau of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the United States and his colleagues.
“We used the MEarth-South telescope to find the GJ1132b. It’s great because it’s pretty close and we can study, especially the atmosphere up there, ”David says.
The first measurements showed that GJ1132b is 1.2 times the size of the Earth (about 16%). GJ1132b belongs to the rocky planet, the main composition of which is stone and iron.
“You could say it’s the closest to Earth among the rocky planets humans have ever discovered. Not only me, but many other astronomers have identified it as one of the few most important planets outside the solar system. It will help us to further study the universe, especially life, ”said Drake Deming – an astronomer from the University of Maryland in the United States.
The newly discovered planet orbiting its host star (Gliese 1132, which is 1/5 the size of the Sun) is known to last only 1.6 days – much less than Earth’s 365 days. The distance between them is only about 2.25 million km, which is 26 times closer than Venus and the Sun.
Because it is too close, the surface temperature of GJ1132b is also above 230 degrees C, too high for liquid water to exist. Therefore, at present, there is no life on this planet.
