Astronomers discover new super-Earth planet

By Gamze Turkoglu Oguz

ANKARA (AA) - Astronomers in New Zealand have discovered a new “one in a million” super-Earth planet.

According to a report by India-based technology news website TechExplorist, scientists at the University of Canterbury have discovered the planet by using a microlensing technique.

The details of the study were published in The Astronomical Journal.

The planet, named OGLE-2018-BLG-0677, was first observed in 2018 using a telescope in Chile, and later through three identical telescopes in Chile, Australia, and South Africa, reported TechExplorist.

“The planet would have a mass somewhere between that of Earth and Neptune. It would orbit at a location between Venus and Earth from the parent star. The host star is expected to have a smaller mass than our Sun, the planet would have a ‘year’ of approximately 617 days,” TechExplorist wrote.

Citing the head of the research team Herrera Martin, the web site reported: “The combined gravity of the planet and its host star caused the light from a more distant background star to be magnified in a particular way.”

“We used telescopes distributed around the world to measure the light-bending effect,” Martin added.