Planet Earth’s new neighbor: Ross 128b

Berlin, November 16: A temperate planet, the size of the Earth, has been discovered only eleven light-years away from the Earth. The planet is named as Ross 128b founded by European Southern Observatory (ESO).

Astronomers say the new planet's warm and rocky environment may support life. The newly discovered planet is about the same size and temperature as Earth and revolves around a so-called "quiet star", so it does not get blasted with harmful radiation.

 

Ross 128 b is no bigger than 1.35 times the size of Earth — very much the kind of planet that would have a solid surface where life could emerge.

This latest revelation comes after NASA discovered, earlier in the year, a solar system with seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a star with the potential of supporting life.

 

"This discovery is based on more than a decade of intensive monitoring with the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) instrument, together with data reduction and state-of-the-art analysis techniques." Only HARPS has shown such precision and, fifteen years after the start of operations, it remains the best radial speed instrument “, explains Nicola Astudillo-Defru (Geneva Observatory, University of Geneva, Switzerland) co-author of the scientific article that presents the discovery.