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In a very rare find, described as occurring at a rate of “one in a million”, New Zealand scientists announced the discovery of “Earth-like” heading towards the center of the Milky Way.
Astronomers at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand say they have discovered an “incredibly” rare new planet, one of the few to have been discovered with a size and orbit comparable to Earth in our solar system.
These planets are often referred to as “super-Earth” or “super-Earth”, and the planet discovered is one of the few exoplanets, ie those outside our solar system, with a size and an orbit similar to our planet.
Astronomers have explained, according to “Sky News”, that the planet will have an estimated mass somewhere between the mass of Venus and the mass of planet Earth, according to what was stated in a report published on the website of the University of New Zealand.
According to information, the mass of its host star is about 10% of the mass of our sun, and the orbit of the planet will be equivalent to that between Venus and Earth in our solar system, which means that the year on this planet is 617 days old. .
Lead author of the study clarifying the discovery, Antonio Herrera Martin, said the discovery of the planet was a one in a million chance.
“To get an idea of the rarity of the discovery, the time taken to observe the magnification due to the host star was about five days, while the planet was only discovered during a small deformation of five hours, ”he explained.
He added in a press release: “After making sure that this was indeed caused by another object of the star, and not by a mathematical error, we proceeded to obtain the properties of the planet-star system. . “
NASA warns that while there are many hopes of finding a planet similar to ours in the so-called “habitable zone” or habitable zone, these super-terrestrial planets may not look exactly like Earth.
And NASA says these Earth-like planets could be “about ten times the size of ours.”
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