TESS Finds an Earth-Sized Potentially Habitable Planet Near to Our Solar System

The American Space Agency, NASA, recently found a habitable exoplanet. Surprisingly, the planet is only 100 light-years away from Earth. Though the distance seems massive, it is significantly lesser in comparison to previously discovered planets. NASA’s TESS mission played an important role in the recent discovery, the space agency revealed. 

The space agency announced the major break-through in the ongoing meeting of the American Astronomical Society. The recent meeting in Honolulu marks the 235th edition of the American Astronomical Society. The newly discovered planet is revolving around TOI 700 stars. TOI 700 is a small-sized star having a mass of around 40% of our sun. The surface temperature of the star is about 50% that of the sun, and it is a part of the Dorado constellation. 

The Similarities with the Earth

Scientists named the planet as TOI 700 d, which is revolving around its sun with two other planets. The planet is in the habitable zone of a star, as water is present on its surface in liquid form. Spitzer Space Telescope was the first one to notice the existence of the potentially habitable planet. The telescope used its infrared capability to discover the planet, TOI 700 d. After further studies, scientists modeled the most probable environment on the newly discovered planet. 

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The basic purpose of the TESS is to find the exoplanets having the size of earth nearby to our solar system, Paul Hertz, the director of the astrophysics division at NASA, explained.