Almost Earth 2: Small Rocky Planet is Closest Yet

Okay , so it ’s not G889 that humans colonized in theTV serial , but it ’s the nigh stargazer have get hold yet . Weighing in at around 5 Earth masses and 1.5 time Earthly diam , GJ 436c ( which revolve the star GJ 436 ) is the smallest rocky exoplanet ever discovered . It still has many of the shaky traits of other exos like a 3 - workweek long day and a 5.2 day - long year , but preliminary calculations suggest the toasty planet could be nice and balmy at the poles — gross for an extended beach holiday in the Leo constellation .

Most of the 280 or so exoplanets discovered so far have been searing gas giant that orbit their headliner nigher than Mercury is to the Sun . But GJ 436c is the latest in a growing class of rocky exoplanets call ‘ crack - Earths ’ that are fetch smaller by the day , thanks to a new method acting planet - hunting astronomers are using to measure wiz ’ gravitative wobble :

Ignasi Ribas , lead author of the study from the Spanish Research Council ( CSIC ) , sound out : “ After last ratification , the raw exoplanet will be the modest found to date . It is the first one to be identified from the perturbations exerted on another planet of the organization . Because of this , the work opens a new path that should lead to the discovery of even little planets in the nigh time to come , with the destination of finally finding humanity more and more standardised to the Earth . ”

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