NASA finds new planet the size of Earth and potentially habitable

For years, scientists have scoured the universe for new habitable planets, just like Earth. Now, they've made an exciting discovery. The United States Aerospace Agency (NASA) seems to have found a promising star, the size of our planet and best of all: within a habitable zone.

How is this new planet?

So far, the planet has been identified as TOI 700 and. It is about 100 light-years from Earth and orbits within an "optimistic" habitable zone. This means that there are high chances of having liquid water on its surface. However, according to NASA, 95% of the celestial body is probably rocky.

Are there more planets out there?

Clear! This is the second celestial body similar in size to Earth that has appeared on NASA's radar. NASA. However, before that, the space agency has already faced other three, all in the same System, called TOI 700. The planets are called TOI b, TOI c and TOI d. Of these, only c and d are in an optimistic habitable zone.

In 2020, a NASA team talked about TOI 700 d, which is also the size of Earth and is in a 37-day orbit.

“It is one of the few systems with several small, habitable-zone planets that we know of,” says Emily. Gilbert, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, who led the work.

According to her, the TOI 700 system has an “interesting perspective”. Therefore, scientists must follow it more closely.

How was the new Earth-like planet found?

To find the new planet, scientists used data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. This equipment monitors large areas of the sky for approximately 27 days at a time.

“These long gazes allow the satellite to track changes in stellar brightness caused by a planet passing in front of its star from our perspective, an event called a transit. NASA.

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