| Title | An "Iceball" is the Lowest Mass Exoplanet Ever Discovered With Microlensing | |
| Date | Sunday April 30 2017, @12:41AM | |
| Author | cmn32480 | |
| Topic | ||
| from the does-he-have-a-wingman? dept. | ||
An extremely cold and relatively small exoplanet has been discovered using gravitational microlensing. The planet orbits an ultracool red or brown dwarf at a distance of around 1.16 AU:
Scientists have discovered a new planet with the mass of Earth, orbiting its star at the same distance that we orbit our sun. The planet is likely far too cold to be habitable for life as we know it, however, because its star is so faint. But the discovery adds to scientists' understanding of the types of planetary systems that exist beyond our own.
[...] The newly discovered planet, called OGLE-2016-BLG-1195Lb, aids scientists in their quest to figure out the distribution of planets in our galaxy. An open question is whether there is a difference in the frequency of planets in the Milky Way's central bulge compared to its disk, the pancake-like region surrounding the bulge. OGLE-2016-BLG-1195Lb is located in the disk, as are two planets previously detected through microlensing by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
Popsci press couldn't resist calling it "Hoth", although it would be even less hospitable.
Also at CNN and Scientific American (Space.com).
An Earth-mass Planet in a 1 au Orbit around an Ultracool Dwarf (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa6d09) (DX)
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printed from SoylentNews, An "Iceball" is the Lowest Mass Exoplanet Ever Discovered With Microlensing on 2025-12-09 14:39:34