On June 08, 2020, A team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Gottingen (Germany), the Sonneberg Observatory, the University of Göttingen, the University of California, and NASA ( National Aeronautics and Space Administration) led by MPS, have discovered a new planet named KOI-456.04 & its host star called Kepler-160 by using Kepler Space Telescope.Scientist have mentioned these two newly discovered planet and its host as “mirror image” of our own planet and sun.
The research has been published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics & lead author of the study was Dr Rene Heller.
Exoplanet-star pair:
- The massive exoplanet KOI-456.04, which is less than twice the size of Earth, orbits its star located some 3,000 light-years away from us and it takes approximately 378 days to complete one orbit.
- While, the star Kepler-160 has at least three planets in its orbit & emits visible light, which is something that most exoplanets’ stars don’t do. This is significant because most exoplanets’ stars tend to be small and fainter than the Sun and mostly emit infrared radiation – belonging to the ‘red dwarf’ classification of stars.
Habitable zone: The pair are quite similar to the Sun and the Earth which makes the planet potentially habitable as conditions are right for liquid water to exist.
