Earth-Like Planet Found 16 Light Years Away

A potentially habitable new Earth-like planet located 16-light years away was discovered by a team of international researchers.

The 'super-Earth' planet dubbed GJ 832 c was discovered by researchers at the University of New South Wales. With a mass nearly five times that of our home planet, the new planet is known to take 16 days to orbit its red-dwarf star GJ 832. Since the host star is a red dwarf that's dimmer and much cooler than the Sun, the new planet receives stellar energy comparable to Earth and is assumed to have temperatures similar to Earth.

According to the Earth Similarity Index developed by scientists at the University of Puerto Rica in Arecibo, these characteristics place the newly discovered planet among the top three most Earth-like planets.

Team member and Head of UNSW's Exoplanetary Science research group, Professor Chris Tinney, claims that if the planet has a similar atmosphere to Earth, it is possible for life to survive even though the seasonal shifts might be extreme.

"However, given the large mass of the planet, it seems likely that it would possess a massive atmosphere, which may well render the planet inhospitable. A denser atmosphere would trap heat and could make it more like a super-Venus and too hot for life," says Professor Tinney.

They were able to discover the new star from its gravitational pull on its parent star due to which the star wobbles.  Observations of the planet were made using the Anglo-Australian Telescope. This data was later combined with observations made from the Magellan Telescope and European Southern Observatory telescope.

In 2009 the team discovered Gliese GJ b, a star that has a cold Jupiter like planet with circular orbit of 9 years.

"With an outer giant planet and an interior potentially rocky planet, this planetary system can be thought of as a miniature version of our Solar System," says Professor Tinney.

The finding was documented in the Astrophysical Journal.