Earlier we have seen that some British astronomers have found evidence of a rocky exoplanet that contains 26% water. And lately, it’s been reported that a team of astronomers has found the world’s first Earth-sized rocky exoplanet outside the solar system.
This Earth-sized exoplanet is called Kepler-78b. It’s been discovered using data from NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, and confirmed and characterized with the W. M. Keck Observatory. Deploying radial velocity method, lead researcher Dr. Andrew Howard, who is from University of Hawaii at Manoa, has measured the mass of Kepler-78b using the 10-meter Keck I telescope.
Kepler-78b has a radius of about 1.2 times that of Earth.density Kepler-78b orbits its star very closely every 8.5 hours. Its surface is very hot to support life. The planet is made primarily of rock and iron. Its star is slightly smaller and less massive than the Sun and is located about 400 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.
However, the most buzzing news is after measuring the mass of the planet which is equal to about 1.7 times that of Earth, researchers determine Kepler-78b as the “world’s first Earth-sized rocky exoplanet.”
Researchers have published a report regarding this in the journal Nature. For more details, hit the source link below.
Source: Institute for Astronomy
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