Astronomers have discovered three super-earths

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Астрономы открыли три суперземлиThese planets are several times bigger than Earth.

A group of scientists from the Harvard-Smithsonian center for astrophysics with a telescope “Kepler” during the K2 mission has discovered three super-earths – exoplanets orbiting the star GJ 9827.

Astronomers have discovered three new super-earths

Super-earths or super-earth, is a planet outside our Solar system whose mass is greater than the Earth, but much smaller than the mass of the ice giants such as Neptune and Uranus. As the supertall category emphasizes the mass of the exoplanet, we don’t know about the conditions on its surface.

GJ 9827 is about 100 light years from Earth and is a bright star of spectral type K6V. Its radius is about 0,63 solar radius and mass approximately 15% less than the mass of the Sun.

Discovered planet was marked with the letters b, c, and d; they are at a distance of about 0.02, 0.04 and 0.06 of astronomical units from the parent star.

The radius of GJ 9827 b is 1.64 radius of the Earth, but the exact mass is still unknown (it is assumed that it is 3,5−4,26 the mass of the Earth). Exoplanet GJ 9827 c — the smallest of the three: its radius is 1.29 radius of the Earth and a weight of about 2.5 of the Earth’s mass. Planet, indicated by letter d, is larger than the Ground about two times and is at least five times more massive.

Astronomers say that this is the closest to us the planetary system detected in the course of the mission K2.

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