Scienceblogtwo

Recently, two "super-Earth" planets orbiting LP 890-9, a dim, cold star around 100 light-years from Earth, were found by an international scientific team. After the well-known TRAPPIST-1, the star is also known as TOI-4306 or SPECULOOS-2 and is the second-coolest star discovered to host planets. An article on this uncommon discovery will soon appear in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. The inner planet of the system, LP 890-9b, is only 2.7 days away from finishing its circle around the star and is roughly 30% larger than Earth. The NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a satellite project looking for exoplanets orbiting nearby stars, first recognized this first exoplanet as a potential planet candidate. The SPECULOOS (Search for livable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars) telescopes, one of which is run by the University of Birmingham, confirmed and characterized this candidate. Then, using their telescopes, SPECULOOS researchers looked for more transitin...