Current Events > NASA Planet Hunter Finds its 1st Earth-size Habitable-zone World

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https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/nasa-planet-hunter-finds-its-1st-earth-size-habitable-zone-world

NASAs Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered its first Earth-size planet in its stars habitable zone, the range of distances where conditions may be just right to allow the presence of liquid water on the surface. Scientists confirmed the find, called TOI 700 d, using NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope and have modeled the planets potential environments to help inform future observations.

TOI 700 d is one of only a few Earth-size planets discovered in a star's habitable zone so far. Others include several planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system and other worlds discovered by NASAs Kepler Space Telescope.
TESS was designed and launched specifically to find Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby stars, said Paul Hertz, astrophysics division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington. 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. Confirming the planets size and habitable zone status with Spitzer is another win for Spitzer as it approaches the end of science operations this January."

TOI 700 is a small, cool M dwarf star located just over 100 light-years away in the southern constellation Dorado. Its roughly 40% of the Suns mass and size and about half its surface temperature. The star appears in 11 of the 13 sectors TESS observed during the missions first year, and scientists caught multiple transits by its three planets.

The star was originally misclassified in the TESS database as being more similar to our Sun, which meant the planets appeared larger and hotter than they really are. Several researchers, including Alton Spencer, a high school student working with members of the TESS team, identified the error.

When we corrected the stars parameters, the sizes of its planets dropped, and we realized the outermost one was about the size of Earth and in the habitable zone, said Emily Gilbert, a graduate student at the University of Chicago.

Additionally, in 11 months of data we saw no flares from the star, which improves the chances TOI 700 d is habitable and makes it easier to model its atmospheric and surface conditions.

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YoshitoKikuchi posted...

may be just right

every time

I'm in, let's get the Space Force up and running and colonize that shit.

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It sucks we will almost for sure be dead long before it's ever able to be proven one way or the other. We will never know

fohstick posted...

every time

lol
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I don't even know for a fact that life exists outside the US

Complete_Idi0t posted...

I don't even know for a fact that life exists outside the US

there are tons of aliens beyond the US bro

YoshitoKikuchi posted...

a high school student

TIL NASA is staffed by teenagers

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bump

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Planet Hunter is too similar to Death Star
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Lets launch a generation ship.
<_<

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Born in the wrong time tbh


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DuranOfForcena posted...

i don't get why this is being called the "1st" one discovered. what about the TRAPPIST-1 system? the article even mentions them. is it just the first one that this particular satellite has spotted? if so, that's a real clickbaity way of wording the headline, wtf.

The headline says its 1st, not the 1st. So yes, it is the first for this thing. No, the headline is not clickbaity since it is entirely accurate and doesnt sensationalize.

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