Current Affairs

Issue

Researchers have found an incredibly rare new Super-Earth planet towards the centre of the galaxy and that it is one of only a handful that has been discovered with both size and orbit comparable to that of planet Earth. 

Background

The new and rare planet is among only a handful of extra-solar planets that have been detected with both sizes and orbits close to that of Earth.

Details

• Using the solar system as a point of reference, the host star is about 10 per cent the mass of our Sun, and the planet would have a mass somewhere between that of Earth and Neptune, and would orbit at a location between Venus and Earth from the parent star.

• Due to the host star having a smaller mass than our Sun, the planet would have a ‘year’ of approximately 617 days, the researchers noted.

• The planet was discovered using a technique called gravitational microlensing. The microlensing effect is rare, with only about one in a million stars in the galaxy being affected at any given time.

• Furthermore, this type of observation does not repeat, and the probabilities of catching a planet at the same time are extremely low.

• These experiments detect around 3000 microlensing events each year, the majority of which are due to lensing by single stars.

• All of the planets in our solar system orbit around the Sun. Those planets that orbit around other stars are called extra solar planets or exoplanets.

• They are very hard to see directly with telescopes as they are hidden by the bright glare of the stars they orbit.