scientist at NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have declare the discovery of a nearby explanet call UCF-1.01 — a planet so blazingly blistering , it ’s probably covered in hot magma . And at 33 promiscuous years aside , this is the closest planet we ’ve discovered that is smaller than Earth .
The discovery is another representative of our enhanced power to observe distant objects that are not just smaller than gas pedal giants , but even smaller than our own planet .
The exoplanet was discovered by NASA astronomer Kevin Stevenson who , along with his squad , were using the Spitzer space - based telescope . They had been observing a Neptune - like planet in the GJ 436 solar system when they started to notice some intermittent dimming . look more close at the information , the astronomers concluded that the magnetic dip were occasional — a sign that a planet is very likely present .
Their finish were recently accepted for issue in The Astrophysical Journal .
allot to Stevenson , the planet is about 5,200 miles in diam ( 8,400 kilometers ) which is two - third gear the size of it of Earth . It ’s go around quite tightly around its red - gnome parent hotshot ; it ’s only 1,672,300 miles ( 384,400 kilometers ) from its sun , which is about about seven metre the space of the Earth to the moonshine . Its year only lasts about 1.4 Earth days . And because UCF-1.01 is so close to its sunlight , its airfoil temperature is an torturously hot 600 degree Celsius , leading the NASA researchers to speculate that it ’s spread over in magma .
The scientists also cautiously note that they believe two other planet reside in the same solar system , but they require to conduct more research to show it .
breakthrough such as this one are exceptionally rarefied . Of the most 1,800 candidate asterisk identified by NASA ’s Kepler space telescope , only three have been confirmed as having sub - Earth exoplanets in their reach . And of these , only one is smaller than UCF-1.01 .
Image via NASA / JPL .
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