NASA scientists have announced the discovery of an Earth-sized planet orbiting its star’s habitable zone.
Experts were able to find the planet by analyzing data collected by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, reports ABC News.
It is noted that the new planet, called TOI 700e, is part of the TOI 700 system and is 95% of the size of the Earth, and is likely rocky.
“This is one of only a few systems with multiple, small, habitable-zone planets that we know of,” Emily Gilbert, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California who led the work, said in a statement on NASA’s website.
Previously, the US space agency has already discovered three planets in one system – TOI 700 b, c and d. Planet e is also in the so-called habitable zone of the star.
The agency also added that the newly discovered planet is about 10% smaller than the planet TOI 700 d. New planet TOI 700 e takes 28 days to orbit its star, TOI 700, a small red dwarf star about 100 light-years from Earth.
Paul Hertz, a senior advisor to the Associate Administrator of the Science Mission Directorate, said in 2020 that “TESS was designed and launched specifically to find Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby stars.”
TOI 700 e takes 28 days to orbit its star called TOI 700, a small red dwarf star located around 100 light-years from Earth.
