This planet, twice the size of Earth, has just been discovered and has an important characteristic
On January 13, 2024, the Haute-Provence Observatory announced the discovery of a planet twice the size of Earth. The center will continue to study this little-known star to uncover its secrets.
HD88986b was discovered by an observatory in the south of France, news that delighted its scientists who are excited to learn more about the star, reports Provence.
“Super-Earth” or “Sub-Neptune”
HD88986b is an exoplanet. “Exoplanets are planets that don’t go around the sun, they go around other stars. We talk about that too. Extrasolar planets“, Note Future Science.
“This type of substance, which was unknown 15 years ago, is very present, and it is even possible that all stars except the Sun have it!”, explains Guillaume Hébrard. An expert in this subject, he is a researcher at the Paris Astrophysics Institute (IAP) and Haute-Provence Observatory (OHP/CNRS) but also co-author of the study led by Neda Heidary (IAP), which revealed the existence of HD88986b.
HD88986b is a “super-Earth” or “sub-Neptune”, orbiting a star in our Milky Way galaxy. This exoplanet was observed using the SOFI technology + spectrograph installed 1 m 93 long telescope.
Interesting features for observatories
It took the observatory and its teams 25 years to identify and confirm the existence of a star twice the size of the blue planet. The HD88986b is interesting in several respects, not least the fact that it (relatively) cold.
With an average temperature of 190°C, HD88986b’s atmosphere tells a lot about its origin and evolution. Additionally, the star is approximately 17 times more massive than Earth and orbits its star in just 146 days, the researchers note.
Additionally, the transits the star regularly makes will allow researchers to learn more about its movements as well as its environment.
The first exoplanet was discovered in 1995 at the Haute-Provence Observatory. In 2005, 155 were identifieddetails Future Science.
