Tagged: super earth

Super-Earth exoplanets are defined as being larger and more massive than Earth, but smaller and less massive than Neptune (about 17 times Earth’s mass). Some super-Earths orbit near their stars and are likely too hot for life. Others orbit farther out and so would be...

An artist’s view of the extrasolar planet GJ 1214b, which scientists say has an atmosphere thick with clouds. One of the best-studied nearby extrasolar planets — a body just a little larger than Earth — is swaddled in alien clouds, researchers have found. It is...

Mini-Neptunes and super-Earths up to four times the size of our own are the most common exoplanets orbiting stars beyond our solar system. Until now, super-Earths were thought to be the rocky cores of mini-Neptunes whose gassy atmospheres were blown away. In a new study...

During the past 25 years astronomers have discovered a wide variety of exoplanets, made of rock, ice and gas, thanks to the construction of astronomical instruments designed specifically for planet searches. Also, using a combination of different observing techniques they have been able to determine...

A PLANET some 31 light years from Earth is “potentially habitable” by humans, scientists claim. And astronomers think that they will soon be able to monitor the ‘Super-Earth’, called GJ 357 d, for alien life forms. The planet was found using Nasa’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey...

Researchers have found a Super-Earth exoplanet they describe as “one in a million” in deep space. The newly discovered exoplanet is “one of only a handful” that has been discovered that has both a size and orbit similar to Earth. It takes about 617 days...

The first-ever analysis of the atmosphere of an alien planet classified as a so-called “super-Earth” has revealed a distant world that is likely covered with either water vapor or a thick haze, scientists announced Wednesday. The exoplanet GJ 1214b, which orbits a star 40 light-years...