The European Space Agency has announced the discovery of a “unique” exoplanet roughly nine times the mass of Earth after being hit by a bright beam from a neighboring star.
Scientists at the European Space Agency confirmed that the new discovery, which was found within a group of planets called “Lupus” (lupus is the constellation of the middle of the southern sky).
The discovery, which was described as “extremely exciting”, was made by chance while researchers were exploring two other planets in a nearby and bright star system, where radiation shocked the planet and made it visible.
When a radioactive celestial body crosses in front of another in space, it gives researchers an opportunity to study the planet’s atmosphere, orbit, size and environment.
A planet with no “known equivalent”
The scientists indicated in the report published by the British newspaper “Daily Mail”, under the title “European Space Agency reveals a unique planet that has no known equivalent”, that the discovered planet will be a golden target for future study because it has no “known equivalent”.
This is the first time an exoplanet has been observed, passing by a star bright enough to be visible to the naked eye.
A solar array similar to ours
The mysterious planet orbits a sun-like star called Nu2 Lupi, one of three visible stars known to host many transiting planets.
And he discovered around the star several planets, which he called the symbols ‘b’, ‘c’ and ‘d’, whose sizes range between the size of the Earth and the size of Neptune and whose sun revolves in specific orbits.
While exploring two exoplanets in a bright nearby star system, #Cheops unexpectedly spotted the system’s third known planet crossing the face of the star!
This transit reveals exciting details about a rare planet with no known equivalent 👉https://t.co/No6ciOqLoq pic.twitter.com/M4DNxPMfN5
— ESA CHEOPS – Characterising Exoplanet Satellite (@ESA_CHEOPS) June 28, 2021
The European Space Agency (ESA) said Planet d would be a particularly attractive target for both the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope, which will be launched at the end of this year.
Chelsea Huang has written a News & Views on the new @ESA_CHEOPS study of v2 Lupi: https://t.co/YPP18ldRxb pic.twitter.com/JAk10Osh2S
— Nature Astronomy (@NatureAstronomy) June 28, 2021
https://youtu.be/E_-QdxuaXqw
According to the study, which was co-authored by David Ehrenreich, from the University of Geneva in Switzerland, and published in the scientific journal “Nature”, the orbit of the planet d places it in a similar position to the location between Mercury and Venus in our solar system, while b and c will be within the orbit of Mercury, which takes 88 a day revolving around the sun.
Planets with a high percentage of water
The researchers say Planet B is mainly rocky, but the rest of the planets contain much more water than Earth – a quarter of the mass of each planet is made of water, compared to less than 0.1% for Earth.
But this water is not a liquid as it takes the form of high pressure ice or high temperature steam.
Cubes satellite observing the planet
The discovery of Planet D, which is 8.8 times the mass of Earth, is one of the results of a new satellite (Cube) launched by the European Space Agency.
“Although these planets are uninhabitable, their diversity makes them the most exciting system and a great future potential for testing how these objects form and change over time,” said Kate Isaacs, a scientist with the Cubes satellite project.