ASTRONOMERS DISCOVER NEW EARTH-SIZE WORLD ONLY 40 LIGHT-YEARS AWAY

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By ARIELLE FROMMER, Sky & Telescope. 

Excerpt: In the search for planets around other stars, astronomers often seek worlds that are most like our own. The discovery of Gliese 12b — the closest, transiting, temperate, Earth-size planet found to date — promises possibilities for understanding how terrestrial planets become habitable. Gliese 12b orbits a cool red dwarf star around 40 light-years away — practically neighborly compared to other exoplanets — with a period of 12.8 days. Its distance from its host star means that its surface might be temperate enough for life, with a temperature of 107°F (42°C). ...Gliese 12b was initially detected by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a mission that searches for changes in stellar brightness and records transits that occur when a planet passes in front of its host star. ...Red dwarf stars, or M stars, have small masses and radii and low luminosities, which means any planets orbiting in the “habitable zone” (the orbital space where a rocky planet might host liquid water on its surface) transit more deeply and more often. Gliese 12b’s orbit is a mere 0.07 astronomical unit from its host star. Yet even though it would be well inside Mercury’s orbit around the Sun, its star’s low luminosity means the planet could be comfortable for life.... 

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