TESS finds a second Earthsize planet orbiting in the habitable zone of a star
The orbiting survey telescope TESS has discovered a second Earthsize planet in a solar system of four exoplanets.
The graphic to the right, a screen capture from a short video provided by the press release, shows these four exoplanets. Planet D had previously been discovered. Planet E is the new discovery, and is thought to be 95% Earth’s mass and likely terrestrial in make-up. Both are near the inner edge of the habitable zone.
TOI 700 is a small, cool M dwarf star located around 100 light-years away in the southern constellation Dorado. In 2020, Gilbert and others announced the discovery of the Earth-size, habitable-zone planet d, which is on a 37-day orbit, along with two other worlds.
The innermost planet, TOI 700 b, is about 90% Earth’s size and orbits the star every 10 days. TOI 700 c is over 2.5 times bigger than Earth and completes an orbit every 16 days. The planets are probably tidally locked, which means they spin only once per orbit such that one side always faces the star, just as one side of the Moon is always turned toward Earth.
This discovery only underlines the infinite possibilities and variables that exist for life on other worlds. These planets might be similar in mass to the Earth and get about the same heat/light energy from their sun, but the star is very different, their orbits are very different, and their environment is very different.
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The orbiting survey telescope TESS has discovered a second Earthsize planet in a solar system of four exoplanets.
The graphic to the right, a screen capture from a short video provided by the press release, shows these four exoplanets. Planet D had previously been discovered. Planet E is the new discovery, and is thought to be 95% Earth’s mass and likely terrestrial in make-up. Both are near the inner edge of the habitable zone.
TOI 700 is a small, cool M dwarf star located around 100 light-years away in the southern constellation Dorado. In 2020, Gilbert and others announced the discovery of the Earth-size, habitable-zone planet d, which is on a 37-day orbit, along with two other worlds.
The innermost planet, TOI 700 b, is about 90% Earth’s size and orbits the star every 10 days. TOI 700 c is over 2.5 times bigger than Earth and completes an orbit every 16 days. The planets are probably tidally locked, which means they spin only once per orbit such that one side always faces the star, just as one side of the Moon is always turned toward Earth.
This discovery only underlines the infinite possibilities and variables that exist for life on other worlds. These planets might be similar in mass to the Earth and get about the same heat/light energy from their sun, but the star is very different, their orbits are very different, and their environment is very different.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Zimmerman’s final comment;
“This discovery only underlines the infinite possibilities and variables that exist for life on other worlds. These planets might be similar in mass to the Earth and get about the same heat/light energy from their sun, but the star is very different, their orbits are very different, and their environment is very different.”
I believe this statement to be extremely conservative. Based upon the extreme differences in our own solar system, nothing can be taken for granted.
For example five of the eight planets in our solar system are far too hot to live on… The exception being Mercury, Earth, and Mars. (sort of stands the green zone on its head)
Saturn’s average radius of about nine and a half earths. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 times more massive. And yet the gravity is only slightly higher on the surface than you experience on earth.
With its rings and moons, it would be a beautiful place to live if it could be terraformed.
Venus day would be near 10 years if it didn’t rotate “backwards”, sunrise to sunrise is about five months. and yet the Darkside is the same temperature as the side facing the sun. The deeper canyons and craters over 900° F
Titan is smaller than Mars, but has a larger atmosphere.
Sunrise to sunrise on the North Pole of earth is one year, but Saturn having a tilt that’s near sideways is much longer.
(Science theology would have you believe that the earth’s north and south pole would be the hottest places on earth with so much sunlight… Reality is so much different than theories.)
Whatever is found there will be beyond expectation.
Max: I think you are unaware of Zimmerman’s law of space discovery: “Every new space object seen up close for the first time will be utterly unique and unlike any other object previously visited.”
This applies to planets, moons, stars, and asteroids. In fact, in the entire history of space exploration, the only time the rule was violated even slightly was when Hayabusa-2 visited Ryugu and OSIRIS-REx visited Bennu. Both asteroids were rubble piles and surprisingly similar.
I’d add Tethys/Rhea/Dione as boring iceballs. Some might say “oh look, this one’s got a BIG crater” or “wow, that one might have Ice II” but, compared to Iapetus and Titan(!), those three stretch my willingness to put my soyface on.
Uranus’ outer four moons, I dunno; I might concede they fall outside the “up close for the first time” limit, as yet.