An international team of scientists has validated the presence of exoplanet GJ 887 d within the GJ 887 red dwarf system, which is situated merely 10.7 light-years away from our planet. The journal Astronomy reported this finding on March 6th.
“This world orbits within the star’s ‘habitable zone,’ suggesting that if it possesses an atmosphere, liquid water could potentially exist on its surface,” the report noted.
This newly confirmed world has a mass approximately six times that of Earth, classifying it as a super-Earth. GJ 887 d completes one orbit around its host star in 51 days.
Two planets, GJ 887 b and GJ 887 c, were already known in this system prior to this discovery. The signal corresponding to a period near 50 days was ambiguous for a considerable time, but supplementary data gathered through the HARPS and ESPRESSO spectrographs enabled researchers to decouple it from stellar noise and establish the existence of a third planet.
GJ 887 d is only the second confirmed planet situated within the habitable zone at such a close proximity to us (following Proxima Centauri b). Its nearness establishes this system as a high-priority target for forthcoming telescopes designed to probe exoplanetary atmospheres and search for biosignatures.
It is worth recalling that on January 29th, astronomers identified another candidate for a potential Earth analogue. The orbital period for that newly discovered planet is close to 355 Earth days, closely approximating our own year.
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