CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – There’s a new rocky Earth-size planet on our galactic block, and it’s a sizzler.
Astrophysicists on Wednesday revealed the newfound world, GJ 1132b, named after the small nearby star that it orbits.
Even though the mercury can hit 450 degrees at this planet, it’s cool enough to have a thick Venus-like atmosphere. Lucky for scientists, it’s close enough to find out.
Planet GJ 1132b is just 39 light-years away, within the atmospheric study range of the Hubble Space Telescope. Given that a single light-year represents 5.87 trillion miles – the distance light can travel in a year – this planet is about 230 trillion miles away.
A team led by Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Zachory Berta-Thompson discovered the planet in May, using telescopes in Chile. He and his colleagues reported their findings Wednesday in the journal Nature.