This Earth-sized planet completes trip around its star in just 4.2 days
Known as HD 63433d, the newly discovered astral object is the third planet found in orbit around a star called HD 63433. Read More
[Young, hot, Earth-sized planet HD 63433d sits close to its star in the constellation Ursa Major, while two neighboring, mini-Neptune-sized planets — identified in 2020 — orbit farther out. (Illustration: Alyssa Jankowski)]
New York: Astronomers have discovered in our solar backyard a planet closer and younger than any other Earth-sized world identified so far.
Known as HD 63433d, the newly discovered astral object is the third planet found in orbit around a star called HD 63433.
The planet HD 63433d is so close to its star, it completes a trip all the way around every 4.2 days. The new planet was described in a new study published in The Astronomical Journal.
On the contrary, Earth revolves around the Sun in a year which comprises of 365 days, 5 hours, 59 minutes and 16 seconds.
“It's a useful planet because it may be like an early Earth,” said Melinda Soares-Furtado, a NASA Hubble Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Even though it's really close-orbiting, we can use follow-up data to search for evidence of outgassing and atmospheric loss that could be important constraints on how terrestrial worlds evolve,” she added.
Based on its orbit, the astronomers are relatively certain HD 63433d is tidally locked, which means one side is perpetually facing its star.
Size and Type
HD 63433 is roughly the same size and star type as our Sun, but (at about 400 million years old) it's not even one-tenth our Sun's age.
The star is about 73 light years away from our the Sun and part of the group of stars moving together that make up the constellation Ursa Major, which includes the Big Dipper.
The authors are collaborating on a planet-hunting project called THYME.
In 2020, they used data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite to identify two mini-Neptune-sized planets orbiting HD 63433.
Astronomers say the planet HD 63433 could be seen through a good pair of binoculars.
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