Exoplanet LHS 475 b

Why in News?

• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) James Webb Space Telescope has recently discovered its first new exoplanet named- LHS 475 b.

Highlights:

• It is roughly the same size as Earth, its diameter is 99% the same as Earth.
• It is a terrestrial, rocky planet about 41 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Octans.
• It differs from Earth in that it completes an orbit in just two days and is hundreds of degrees hotter than Earth.
• It is also closer to its star than any planet in our solar system is to the sun, although its star is less than half the temperature of the sun.
• It orbits very close to a red dwarf star and completes a full orbit in just two days.
• So far, most of the discovered exoplanets are similar to Jupiter as Earth-sized planets are much smaller in size and harder to discover with older telescopes.
• These first observational results from an Earth-size rocky planet open the door to many future possibilities for studying rocky planet atmospheres.
• Its red dwarf star is less than half the temperature of the Sun, so the researchers are expecting that it still could have an atmosphere.