Called LHS 1140b, the object is about five times the mass of our planet, or a “super-Earth.” This planet orbits around its star in the “Goldilocks zone,” also known as the habitable zone, meaning its surface temperature is not too hot or too cold for liquid water to exist.
“We believe it is also predominantly a rocky planet, based on its mass and its radius measurements, which gives us a density estimate,” said Collin Cherubim, a planetary scientist and lead author of a paper on the finding, published July 16 in the journal Science.
“It appears to be consistent with Earth, meaning it might have an iron core and a silicate mantle, plus some sort of low-density component, which is probably a combination of water and, now we know, an atmosphere,” said Cherubim, a NASA Sagan Fellow at the University of Chicago. He conducted the research during his doctoral studies at Harvard University.
Source: https://edition.cnn.com
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