What do we know about this Super-Earth?
Astronomers found a 'Super-Earth,' a planet bigger than ours, circling a star 137 light-years away. It's called TOI-715b and orbits a cooler, smaller star than our Sun. There might also be another similar planet.
Astronomers discovered the planet with NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). It's about 1.5 times wider than Earth and not too far from its star and in the habitable zone. The other planet could be a bit bigger than Earth and inside the same zone.
The habitable zone is said to be the distance a planet has from a star at which the planet's temperature allows liquid water to exist on its surface.
The team has published their discovery in a journal called Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Still, further research on the planets will be done.
What is NASA’s TESS?
It is a satellite launched in 2018 by NASA to help discover exoplanets or worlds outside our solar system. TESS detects and helps in studying asteroids, stars, and other distant galaxies.
Since its launch, TESS has helped astronomers find planets around nearby stars, helping scientists study those stars and planets.
Why are astronomers searching for such planets?
Scientists want to find a new place for people to live because Earth is slowly running out of its resources. They're worried that if Earth becomes too bad to live on, humans might go extinct.
But we can't move to another planet yet. We don't have the right technology, and it will take a long time to develop it. But you don’t need to worry. Earth still has enough resources to last thousands of years. Still, we need to focus on saving our planet so that both humans and Earth stay safe.
