Super-Earth G 9–40b Confirmed Using Habitable-Zone Planet Finder
The discovery of a super-Earth exoplanet has been confirmed in the G 9–40 star system. What do we know about this alien world?
Originally discovered by the Kepler space telescope, G 9–40b has just been confirmed as an exoplanet by a team of Penn State researchers using the Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF) located in Texas.
This world, G 9–40b, is at least twice as large as Earth, and is likely significantly larger — possibly closer to the size of Neptune. It orbits its parent star just 100 light years from Earth once every five days and 17 hours at a distance of 5,760,000 km (almost 3,580,000 miles), roughly 25 times closer than the distance between the Earth and Sun.
“G 9–40b is amongst the top twenty closest transiting planets known, which makes this discovery really exciting. Further, due to its large transit depth, G 9–40b is an excellent candidate exoplanet to study its atmospheric composition with future space telescopes,” said Guðmundur Stefánsson, a former PhD student at Penn State, currently at Princeton University.
Taking a Closer Look
This world was originally discovered by astronomers using the Kepler spacecraft in 2019, during the second segment of its mission, dubbed K2. The body was found as it passed “in front” of…
