However, it is still a planet 5 times more massive than Earth orbiting a cooler sun in a ten-year orbit
Avi Blizovsky
An international team of astronomers published this week in the journal Nature that they discovered the smallest and most Earth-like planet yet outside the solar system, albeit a much colder one. The new planet is 5 times larger than Earth and is about 25 thousand light years away from us, and orbits a red dwarf.
The discovery was made using a method known as microlensing, which can be used to identify distant planets with masses close to that of Earth. The relatively cold temperatures on the surface of that planet do not allow for an increase in the likelihood of finding life on its surface, say team members in a news report published on the BBC.
The planet, so far named OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, orbits its sun in our ten-year orbit. As mentioned, the star is a red dwarf that is somewhat similar to the sun but smaller and colder. In addition, the same system in which the planet resides is closer than us to the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
Like Earth, that planet has a rocky core and probably an atmosphere, at least a thin one, but its long orbit and the lower wall of its sun mean that it is a very cold world. It is estimated that the degree of heat on its surface reaches minus 220 degrees Celsius, and therefore its surface is covered with frozen liquid. It may be more like a massive version of Pluto.
According to the main researcher in the project, Prof. Michael Budd from John Moores University in Liverpool, UK, this is an important discovery.
"Despite all the differences, this is the planet most similar to Earth in terms of its size and distance from the Sun. Until now, the vast majority of the more than 160 planets discovered outside the solar system belonged to gas giants such as Jupiter and even massive ones at a distance similar to the distance of the planet Mercury from the Sun.
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