Scientists discover three ‘super Earth’ planets located in habitable zone

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered three ‘Super-Earth’ planets located in the habitable zone, the area around the parent star where rocky planet presumably has liquid water. In a research published in Science Journal and NASA’s official site, the astronomers said that the findings were a breakthrough in identifying the extra-terrestrial life outside the solar system with perfect atmospheric conditions. Observed some 73 light-years away from Earth, the trio planets do not exist in the solar systems and are between the size of Earth and Neptune.  

According to the published study, the trio habitable planets packed in the system known as TOI-270 answer some challenging questions about the “super-Earths”. TESS spotted the planets that were visible within range of ground-based telescope and NASA’s orbiting instrument James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). A lead author at the University of Liège in Belgium, James Webb, said, “This will be one of the key systems for JWST to study.” While NASA’s predecessor satellite Kepler previously discovered more than 2300 confirmed exoplanets, TESS aims to find closer to the solar system. 

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Answering the question ‘are we alone’

“This discovery could be a significant piece in the puzzle of finding habitable environments, places that are conducive to life,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “Answering the question ‘are we alone’ is a top science priority and finding so many planets like these for the first time in the habitable zone is a remarkable step forward toward that goal,” he added, in a report released by NASA. 

The trio planets have been orbiting red around the dwarf star GJ 887. Although, the Astronomers haven't been able to determine the inclinations of the orbits yet. Further in the study, scientists revealed that the TOI-270 system was only 3.3 parsecs from the Sun and are the closest exoplanets to the solar system. Two of the three planets discovered have orbital periods of 9.3 and 21.8 days, respectively, while the third has the 50 days orbital period that corresponds to the “third super-Earth in a more temperate orbit.” 

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