While the talk of the town remains the NASA James Webb Space Telescope, its other telescopes are working just as hard. Proving the claim, the NASA Subaru telescope recently made an unbelievable discovery. The telescope spotted an exoplanet which shocked all astronomers. It appears that the rocky planet, located 37 light years from us, can potentially contain water and support life, including advanced life. It is orbiting around an M-type star (red dwarf star). The planet is called Ross 508 b and has a mass four times that of Earth. Its estimated radius is 1.83 times of the Earth and around 0.18 times the mass of the Sun.
Located about 37 light years away from us, the super-Earth orbits its star in 10.8 days. It is located approximately 0.05366 AU (astronomical units, a measure of distances in space) from its star.
Explaining more about the recent discovery, NASA mentioned in its blog, “Its orbit takes it in, and out, of its star's habitable zone. Such a planet may be able to retain water on its surface and will be an important target for future observations to study the possibility of life around low-mass stars like the M dwarf it orbits.”
Talking about The Ross 508 b, it is a super Earth exoplanet that orbits an M-type star. Its mass is 4 Earths, it takes 10.8 days to complete one orbit of its star, and is 0.05366 AU from its star. Its discovery was announced in 2022. Its orbit takes it in, and out, of its star's habitable zone.
It should be noted that super-Earths are a classification of planets that are more massive than Earth yet lighter than ice giants like Neptune and Uranus, and can be made of gas, rock or a combination of both. They are between twice the size of Earth and up to 10 times its mass, according to NASA.
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