Newly Spotted Frozen World in Binary Star System Expands Hunt for Earth-like Planets

Astronomers continue to hunt for planets like our Earth. Now, though, a newly discovered world in a binary start system about 3,000 light-years from our own planet may just expand scientists' views of where Earth-like and potentially habitable planets can form.

The newly found planet has twice the mass of Earth and orbits one of the stars in the binary system at almost exactly the same distance form which Earth orbits the sun. Yet because the star is far dimmer than the sun, the planet is much colder than Earth-about as cold as Jupiter's icy moon, Europa.

Yet while the planet is cold, it does pave the way for understanding what planets might potentially host life. It's actually the first evidence that terrestrial planets can form in orbits similar to Earth's ,even in a binary star system where the stars aren't very far apart.

"This greatly expands the potential locations to discover habitable planets in the future," said Scott Gaudi, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Half the stars in the galaxy are in binary systems. We had no idea if Earth-like planets in Earth-like orbits could even form in these systems."

The planet, called OGLE-2013-BLG-0341LBb, first appeared as a "dip" in the line tracing the brightness data taken by the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) telescope. The planet briefly disrupted one of the images formed by the star it orbits as the system crossed in front of a much more distant star about 20,000 light-years away.

The new planet has temperatures that hover around -352 degrees Fahrenheit. Although there are two stars in the system, the second star is also very dim, which means that it doesn't help with the warming of the planet.

The findings reveal that there may be many more terrestrial planets out there surrounding binary star systems. This, in turn, could mean that scientists may have new targets when it comes to hunting for life.

The findings are published in the journal Science.