A team of astronomers has discovered an Earth-sized planet orbiting around an ultra-cold red dwarf star with dimensions similar to Jupiter. As reported by Space.com, the red dwarf, located about 55 light-years away, is much less bright and colder than the Sun, and has half its temperature.
With the scientific name of SPECULOOS-3 b, the discovery of this exoplanet marks the second time a planetary system has been detected around a red dwarf, the first being the Trappist-1 system.
The discovery of SPECULOOS-3 b is due to the SPECULOOS (Search for habitable Planets Eclipsing Ultra-cool Stars) project at the Paranal Observatory, located in the Atacama Desert, Chile. This project, named after a Belgian cookie, seeks rocky exoplanets around ultra-cool stars, such as red dwarfs and brown dwarfs, through infrared observations.
The planet takes only 17 hours to orbit its star, which means that its year is extremely short compared to Earth. In addition, it is likely to be in a “tidal locking”, having one side perpetually illuminated by the sun and the other in eternal darkness. In this way, and despite its similarities to Earth in size, SPECULOOS-3 b differs significantly in its conditions, making it impossible to host liquid water on its surface due to the intense radiation it receives from its star.
However, red dwarfs like the one hosting SPECULOOS-3 b are fascinating to scientists because of their longevity; they are the most common stars in the Milky Way and are expected to burn for more than 100 billion years, providing more time for life to develop in their planetary systems.
Although SPECULOOS-3 b is not habitable, it remains an object of interest for research. In the future, the James Webb Space Telescope will examine it as part of a study to determine if planets near their stars can retain atmospheres.
