Posted on 01/09/2020 10:30:28 AM PST by Red Badger
TOI 700 d is a landmark discovery for NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite
NASA’s newest planet hunter just bagged some big game.
For the first time, the agency’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered a roughly Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of its host star, the zone of orbital distances where liquid water could be stable on a world’s surface, researchers announced today (Jan. 6).
The newfound exoplanet, known as TOI 700 d, lies just 101.5 light-years from Earth, making it a good candidate for follow-up observations by other instruments, scientists added.
“TESS was designed and launched specifically to find Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby stars,” Paul Hertz, astrophysics division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a statement. “Planets around nearby stars are easiest to follow up with larger telescopes in space and on Earth. Discovering TOI 700 d is a key science finding for TESS.”
TESS, which launched in April 2018, hunts for planets using the "transit method," looking for telltale dips in stellar brightness caused by orbiting worlds crossing stars’ faces from the satellite’s perspective. This same strategy was used to great effect by NASA’s Kepler space telescope, which discovered about 70% of the roughly 4,000 known exoplanets.
[SNIP]
TOI 700 d, the outermost known planet in the system, is the really intriguing one. It’s just 20% larger than Earth and completes one orbit every 37 days. The alien world receives 86% of the stellar energy that Earth gets from the sun, putting TOI 700 d in the habitable zone (at least as it’s traditionally defined), discovery team members said.
(Excerpt) Read more at scientificamerican.com ...
We hear you the 1st time :-)
This article has a lot more info and more scientific stuff than Popular Mechanics..................
The thing I find funny about this is that if it were circling some other star, Venus would be identified as “earth like” by this satellite and Nasa.
True, but until they can study the light passing thru the planet’s atmosphere they cannot tell us what kind of gases are there.............................
Oh ok only 101 Light years.
Literally next door!.................
Yeah,, I’m sure we will get that FTL drive on line soon. Wait what we can’t even get or own Astronauts to the ISS.
And the funny part is that Mars and Venus have the same percentage of CO2 in their atmospheres, but we are only seriously thinking about sending manned spacecraft to one of them. ;)
I have to sway this, because the way the world is evolving under Trump is so amazing, that you have to think it’s pre-ordained. He is speaking a philosophy to all people of the world, that they should be free, happy and productive and live the good life. I think you can hear that when he speaks like yesterday to Iran, and in the past to NK and even China...and at the same time, he pushes back against the Bolton’s around him.
THIS IS WHY, I FIRMLY BELIEVE THAT WE WILL PROBABLY HAVE EXTRA-TERESTRIAL CONTACT WHILE HE IS PRESIDENT.
Correct, Venus and Mars are both in the 'habitable zone' for planets.
This rock goes around it's parent sun every 37 days......not much chance of a stable atmosphere and it would be a gravitational nightmare.
Well, a surface temperature of 900° F and the pressure is 93 bar (9.3 MPa), roughly the pressure found 900 m (3,000 ft) underwater on Earth, might have something to do with that.........
It’s right around the corner!..............
Related. I’m thinking it’s just us, Pa...
https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/earth-may-be-a-1-in-700-quintillion-kind-of-place
https://manyworlds.space/2019/06/14/exoplanets-with-complex-life-may-be-very-rare-indeed/
a stone’s throw
Yeah. I like to call it out to climate alarmists. It’s not CO2 that makes venus hot. It’s atmospheric pressure.
Same with Jupiter.
That and Sulfuric acid clouds...............
C’mon man, almost every planet Enterprise visited had breathable air and all the aliens spoke English.
Find one of those, these planets seem to be duds! /s
With the billions and billions and billions of planets out there, find one just like earth or don’t bother me.
And they could get there in less than an hour!...............
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