Super-Earth Found Orbiting Nearby Red Dwarf Ross 508 astronomy space science
“Among them, M-type stars are especially promising targets for the detection of Earth-like planets.”
“These stars’ small sizes make transits relatively deep, and their low luminosities make the habitable zone close to the star where the radial velocity amplitude is larger.”The newly-discovered exoplanet orbitsAlso known as Gliese 585, LTT 14584, LHS 396 and LSPM J1523+1727, the parent star is located 36.5 light-years away in the constellation of Serpens.The planet orbits its star once every 10.77 days at a distance of only 0.054 astronomical units .
“This gives an orbit-averaged insolation of 1.4 times the Earth’s value, placing Ross 508b near the inner edge of its star’s habitable zone,” the researchers said.