New Super-Earth Found: Does It Orbit a Red Dwarf Star in 2.4 Days?

While establishing a human presence on another planet may seem to be a distant dream, astronomers are still looking for the next new contender. They seem to have discovered one 36 light-years out.

A student at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, a Canary Islands-based research center, has discovered a new super-Earth orbiting the red dwarf star GJ 740. One orbit around its star takes just 2.4 days to complete.

(Photo: Gabriel Pérez Díaz, SMM (IAC).)
Artistic impression of the super-Earth in orbit around the red dwarf star GJ-740.

This means that, while Earth takes 365.25 days to complete a year, this new super-Earth does so in under a week. Two days, nine hours, and thirty minutes to be exact.

"This is the planet with the second shortest orbital period around this type of star," said Borja Toledo Padron, the first author of the report. The study is titled "A Super-Earth on a Close-in Orbit Around the M1V Star GJ 740." Researchers uploaded the study in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

According to a SpaceGear report, observations from the TESS satellite may provide more information on the planet in the future. Researchers used the radial velocity approach to find the planet. The technique is focused on detecting minor changes in a star's velocity caused by the gravitational attraction of a planet orbiting it. The radial velocity technique has been used to discover 116 exoplanets so far.

What is Super-Earth?

Because of its immense scale, experts call these planets "super" Earth. Super-Earths are at least double the size and up to ten times the mass of our own. NASA said they're much smaller than Neptune and Uranus, the solar system's ice giants. They do not, though, have to be made of rocks. They can also be made of petrol or a mix of the two.

The mass of this super-Earth called GJ 740 is three times that of the Earth, making it somewhat smaller than Neptune, our solar system's fourth-largest planet after Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus.

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Are Red Dwarfs and Super-Earths Habitable?

Red dwarfs are plentiful in the Milky Way, so astronomers come across them often. According to some estimates, red dwarfs account for three-quarters of all-stars in the galaxy.

Red dwarfs are also known as the universe's "cold" stars. They are the tiniest and have the coldest temperatures of all.

The issue with being hotter is that the star's "habitable region" is much smaller. The closest a planet is to the red dwarfs, the more likely it is to experience tidal locking. When the earth rotates at the same rate as the star, this occurs. As a result, one side is always facing the star and is scorching hot, while the other side is always dark and ice cold.

However, the presence of an atmosphere, such as that found on Earth or Venus, will help to even out these temperature variations. Simulations in 2013 found that under the right circumstances, the atmosphere surrounding red dwarfs could support life. AirSpaceMag said the sun would tend to be even larger, and black plants would replace green plants, but humans would thrive.