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\t\t\t\t\t\t16\/11\/2023<\/span> The NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has measured the size of the nearest Earth-sized exoplanet that passes across the face of a neighbouring star. This alignment, called a transit, opens the door to follow-on studies to see what kind of atmosphere, if any, the rocky world might have.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The diminutive planet, LTT 1445Ac, was first discovered by NASA\u2019s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite in 2022. But the geometry of the planet\u2019s orbital plane relative to its star as seen from Earth was uncertain because TESS does not have the required optical resolution. This means the detection could have been a so-called grazing transit, where a planet only skims across a small portion of the parent star\u2019s disk. This would yield an inaccurate lower limit of the planet\u2019s diameter.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cThere was a chance that this system has an unlucky geometry and if that\u2019s the case, we wouldn\u2019t measure the right size. But with Hubble\u2019s capabilities we nailed its diameter,\u201d said Emily Pass of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Hubble observations show that the planet makes a normal transit fully across the star\u2019s disk, yielding a true size of only 1.07 times Earth\u2019s diameter. This means the planet is a rocky world, like Earth, with approximately the same surface gravity. But at a surface temperature of roughly 260 degrees Celsius, it is too hot for life as we know it.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The planet orbits the star LTT 1445A, which is part of a triple system of three red dwarf stars that is 22 light-years away in the constellation Eridanus. The star has two other reported planets that are larger than LTT 1445Ac. A tight pair of two other dwarf stars, LTT 1445B and C, lies about 4.8 billion km away from LTT 1445A, also resolved by Hubble. The alignment of the three stars and the edge-on orbit of the BC pair suggests that everything in the system is coplanar, including the known planets.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cTransiting planets are exciting since we can characterise their atmospheres with spectroscopy, not only with Hubble but also with the James Webb Space Telescope. Our measurement is important because it tells us that this is likely a very nearby terrestrial planet. We are looking forward to follow-on observations that will allow us to better understand the diversity of planets around other stars,\u201d said Emily.<\/p>\n “Hubble remains a key player in our characterisation of exoplanets”, added Professor Laura Kreidberg of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany (who was not part of this study). “There are precious few terrestrial planets that are close enough for us to learn about their atmospheres \u2014 at just 22 light-years away, LTT 1445Ac is right next door in galactic terms, so it\u2019s one of the best planets in the sky to follow up and learn about its atmospheric properties.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.<\/p>\n Scientific paper<\/p>\n Release on esahubble.org<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \nFor more information, please contact ESA media relations:
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nNotes for editors<\/h2>\n
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