Pair of Earth-Like Planets Discovered Around Teegarden’s Star — Howdy, Neighbors!
Two planets only slightly more massive than our own world have been discovered orbiting Teegarden’s Star, a red dwarf just 12.5 light years from Earth. A three-year-long study of the star revealed the presence of these worlds, which could potentially hold some of the conditions necessary for life.
Teegarden’s Star is a relative neighbor to our solar system, but it was not discovered until 2003. Due to the star’s cool temperature of just 2,700 degrees Celsius (4,900 degrees Fahrenheit) and possessing less than 10 percent of the mass of our Sun, this small, dim star remained undetected until recently.
“The two planets resemble the inner planets of our solar system. They are only slightly heavier than Earth and are located in the so-called habitable zone, where water can be present in liquid form,” explains Mathias Zechmeister of the Institute for Astrophysics at the University of Göttingen.
Teegarden’s Star is the smallest star for which researchers have successfully measured the mass of an orbiting exoplanet. This star, more than eight billion years old, is the 24th closest stellar body to the Earth, and it is the fourth-closest system containing habitable planets.
