Evidence of a new Earth in a galaxy far far away
Two interns at NASA have reportedly used data from the Kepler space telescope of NASA, along with a team of amateur astronomers have allegedly found a new planet, “Super Earth.”
The super-Earth is roughly twice the size of the planet where life exists. The new super-Earth is known as K2-288 Bb. It is located in a new world which is located within a habitable zone of the star. It has currently raised hopes for containing and sustaining life on a new planet.
Super Earth is only 226 light years away, and it is located in the Taurus constellation. It looks like the newly discovered planet might be rocky. Or it could be a planet which is rich in gas, same as the Neptune of Milky Way Galaxy according to NASA.
The person behind the breakthrough discovery
The size of the exoplanets is rare among the planets which are not located in the Milky Way Galaxy.
A graduate student from the University of Chicago, Adina Feinstein said that it is hugely an exciting discovery as to how it was found in the first place.
The new bigger super-Earth has a temperative orbit, and on the other hand, the plants of this kind of size are quite uncommon.
Adina Feinstein is also a lead author of a paper which has reportedly described a new planet. The Astronomical Journal has accepted the publication.
The planet is currently located in the stellar system which is regarded as K2-288, which is comprised of a pair of cool and dim stars which are separated by around 5.1 billion miles.
The distance is roughly six times the distance between the biggest star in the solar system, The Sun and Saturn.
The new super-Earth has a name as well
The new planet, K2-288Bb is currently orbiting in the smaller and the dimmer star in every 31.3 days.
The discovery came into being when Makennah Bristow and Feinstein, back in 2017 were working together as interns with an astrophysicist named Joshua Schlieder. Schleider works as an astrophysicist at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Maryland.
The couple of NASA interns have reportedly searched for the Kepler data for the evidence of the transition which also includes regular dimming of a star while orbiting the planet while moving across the face of the star.
The team of rookies has reportedly noticed two of the planetary transits in the far away system. First, they had to examine the data which originated from the fourth observing campaign of the mission of Kepler’s K2.
Source: Dailymail, CNET
