NASA announces the discovery of a mysterious planet twice the size of Earth.

 

NASA announced the discovery of a mysterious "super-Earth"-like planet known as TOI-1846 b, emitting recurring signals from 154 light-years away.

The agency explained that this planet is twice the size of Earth and four times its mass. It orbits a small, cool red dwarf star in a tight orbit that takes only about four days, causing frequent and strange dips in the star's light.

The agency noted that space and ground-based telescopes have shown that the planet belongs to a rare class known as the "radius gap," which lies between small, rocky planets like Earth and larger, gas-filled planets like Neptune. It added that although the planet's surface temperature is estimated to be around 600 degrees Fahrenheit (316 degrees Celsius), scientists do not rule out the presence of water.

The US space agency added that the planet orbits much closer to its star than Mercury orbits the Sun in our solar system. The host star is about 40 percent the size and mass of the Sun. NASA scientists hope that the James Webb Space Telescope will use infrared light to study the planet's atmosphere to detect the presence of water vapor, methane, carbon dioxide, or other gases.

This discovery comes alongside the recent discovery of a similar planet called TOI-715 b, located 137 light-years away and also orbiting a red dwarf star. Since red dwarfs make up about 75 percent of the stars in the Milky Way, studying such planets could reveal a large number of habitable worlds hidden in our galaxy.