A new window in the search for Earth-like worlds

Using an armada of telescopes, scientists from the University of Toronto revealed images of what is probably the smallest planet ever detected around a normal star outside our solar system. The Gemini North telescope located in Mauna Kea - Hawaii captured images of the young star 1RXS J160929.1-210524 (which lies about 500 light-years from Earth) and a candidate companion of that star. The extra solar planet is five times as massive as Earth and orbits a red dwarf, a relatively cool star (similar in mass to the Sun, but is much younger), every 10 years. The distance between the planet and its host is around three times greater than that between the Earth and the Sun. The planet's large orbit and its dim parent star make its likely surface temperature a approximately -220ºC. This temperature is similar to that of Pluto, but the newly found planet is about one-tenth closer to its star than Pluto is to the Sun.