![]() The above article has been published from a wire source with minimal modifications to the headline and text. Planet LP 791-18 c has already been approved for observing time on the James Webb Space Telescope, and the team thinks planet LP 791-18 d is also an exceptional candidate for atmospheric studies by the mission. Temperatures could drop enough on the planet's night side for water to condense on the surface. If the planet is as geologically active as the research team suspects, it could maintain an atmosphere. ![]() Planet LP 791-18 d sits on the inner edge of the habitable zone, the traditional range of distances from a star where scientists hypothesise liquid water could exist on a planet's surface. NASA didnt have to organize a launch just for this projectthe Lunar Flashlight got to space on the cheap as a ride-along payload aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9. Jupiter and some of its moons similarly affect Io. These deformations can create enough internal friction to substantially heat the planet's interior and produce volcanic activity at its surface. The newfound alien world, designated TOI-244. On this elliptical path, planet LP 791-18 d is slightly deformed whenever it goes around the star. An international team of astronomers reports the detection of a new 'super-Earth' exoplanet using NASAs Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Each close pass by the more massive planet LP 791-18 c produces a gravitational tug on planet LP 791-18 d, making its orbit somewhat elliptical - pretty similar to Earth! The outer world, LP 791-18 c, is about 2.5 times Earth's size and more than seven times its mass.ĭuring each orbit, planets LP 791-18 d and LP 791-18 c cross each other very closely. The inner planet, LP 791-18 b, is about 20% bigger than Earth. The team estimates it's only slightly larger and more massive than Earth.īefore this discovery, astronomers knew about two other worlds in the system, called LP 791-18 b and c. LP 791-18 d orbits a small red dwarf star about 90 light-years away in the southern constellation Crater. But the amount of volcanic activity we suspect occurs all over the planet could sustain an atmosphere, which may allow water to condense on the night side," he added. "The day side would probably be too hot for liquid water to exist on the surface. "LP 791-18 d is tidally locked, which means the same side constantly faces its star," said Bjorn Benneke, an astronomy professor at Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx) based at the University of Montreal in Canada. The findings have been detailed in the scientific journal Nature. ![]() The exoplanet was found using data from NASA's TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and retired Spitzer Space Telescope, as well as a suite of ground-based observatories. Just 90 light-years away from our planet, astronomers have discovered an Earth-sized exoplanet - an alien world beyond our solar system - that may be smothered with volcanoes.ĭubbed LP 791-18 d, this alien world could undergo volcanic outbursts as often as Jupiter's moon Io, our solar system's most volcanically active body.
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