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Astronomers have discovered an Earth-sized planet, Speculoos-3b, orbiting an ultra-cool red dwarf star that is expected to shine 100 times longer than our Sun.
This remarkable find was made 55 light years from Earth as the planet passed in front of its host star, causing a brief dimming of the starlight.
The research, published in Nature Astronomy and highlighted by The Guardian, shows that Speculoos-3b is virtually the same size as our Earth.
However, the planet orbits its star in just 17 hours, which means that a year on Speculoos-3 B is shorter than an Earth day.
The planet’s synchronous rotation with its star means that one side, the day side, is constantly facing the star, while the other side, the night side, remains in perpetual darkness.
The discovery is particularly significant as it is only the second known planetary system to be found around such a star, after the system around the star Trappist-1.
Such stars, ultra-cool red dwarfs, make up about 70% of the stars in our galaxy and have lifespans of up to 100 billion years, making them candidates to be the last shining stars in the universe.
The long life spans of these stars mean that planets orbiting them could potentially stay warm long enough to support life.
However, Speculoos-3b is an extremely harsh environment due to its close orbit and high radiation levels.
Scientists, including Julien de Wit from MIT, doubt that an atmosphere could exist on the planet under such conditions.
- source: dagens.de/picture: pixabay.com
