NASA Satellite Finds Cosmic Neighborhood Just 33 Light-Years Away

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

NASA's TESS Finds Buzzing Cosmic Neighborhood With Two Super-Earths:

Here's your friendly reminder that our solar system is but a molecule of water in the universe's ocean.

NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Satellite Survey, better known as TESS, has spotted a buzzing galactic neighborhood only 33 light-years away from our planet. It has a central star, a couple of planets circling that star, and according to the scientists behind this alternate reality discovery, there are at least two terrestrial, Earth-size worlds in the pack.

[...] What we know so far is that the system's host star is dubbed HD 260655 and is relatively small, cool and categorized as an M-dwarf. M-dwarves are significantly less massive than our sun, a G-type main sequence star, yet are 10 times as numerous throughout the universe.

[...] The inner planet orbits its star every 2.8 Earth days and is about 1.2 times the size of Earth and twice as massive. The other foreign world orbits every 5.7 Earth days and is 1.5 times the size of Earth and three times as massive. They're both considered "rocky."

"Both planets in this system are each considered among the best targets for atmospheric study because of the brightness of their star," Michelle Kunimoto of MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research and one of the discovery's lead scientists, said in a statement.

That includes studies that aim to answer questions like, "Is there a volatile-rich atmosphere around these planets? And are there signs of water or carbon-based species?" Kunimoto said -- in other words, a protective layer like the Earth's ozone layer, and living beings like ... humans. "These planets are fantastic test beds for those explorations."

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