Earth-sized Exoplanet

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning partners: Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Video imagery:

·       Artist's concept of the LTT 1445A system: NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)

·       Animation of a transiting planet: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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A mosaic of various cosmic images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, including distant galaxies, nebulae, and planets. Text, News From the Universe. 

 

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An illustration depicts a planet transiting a star. Text, Earth-sized exoplanet, November 30, 2023. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has precisely measured the size of a planet orbiting a star 22 light-years away. The transiting planet appears as a small black circle against the large disk of a glowing star. Another planet is in the foreground. 

 

Text, the planet, LTT 1445Ac, is1.07 times Earth's diameter and likely has a solid rocky surface, like Earth. 

 

An animation depicts the planet moving across the face of the star. As the planet does so, a graph plots the light from the star, which dips when the planet passes in front of the star. Text, Hubble obtained the measurements during the planet's transit, when it passed in front of its star, blocking a tiny portion of the star's light. 

 

LTT 1445Ac is the nearest transiting Earth-sized planet discovered to date. The planet moves in its orbit around the star. 

 

Text, despite size similarities to Earth, the planet is so close to its star that its surface temperature is around 500 degrees Fahrenheit -- far too hot for life as we know it. The illustration of the transiting exoplanet appears again. A sliver of light from its sun illuminates the foreground planet's surface. 

 

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Text, this news was brought to you in part by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD.