NASA has been on something of a roll lately. Many of its headlines have been centered on the Moon. It is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Moon Landing, unsealing rocks from the Moon that have been stored for decades. Significant progress in returning to the Moon and traveling beyond.
Regarding traveling beyond, NASA's TESS program may have found a future destination. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite has spotted a planet that could well be habitable though it might take us a very long time for us to get there.
Super-Earth found 31 light-years away
The super-Earth is technically classified as GJ 357 d. It's about six times more massive than our Earth and can be found about 31 light-years away. Or, as Space.com calculates it, roughly six trillion miles. Though that's a pretty vast distance, it's not that far in terms of space. And it's the closest that NASA has found a planet where possible habitation seems so promising.
Researches haven't determined if it has rocky landmasses like the ones found on Earth. But apparently, it orbits its sun roughly every 56 days. Crucially, many elements are present that make it plausible for there to be large amounts of liquid water present.
The average temperature could be approximately minus 64 degrees Fahrenheit.
It is true that it's not advisable for humans to spend much if any time in that sort of climate. But with the proper technology, it could be done. And CNN reports that it's not yet known if the planet has a dense atmosphere. If it does, the planet's climate could be similar to ours.
Whether or not there's a dense enough atmosphere would take additional studies to determine.
NASA hopes to start conducting further studies soon. More telescopes on track to be online in the near future. These powerful new instruments will likely be utilized in studying the super-Earth.
Other nearby planets were also found
Two more planets were found relatively close to the super-Earth. Both of them are closer to the region's star.
The star itself is much smaller and cooler than the one we orbit around. It's only about a third of the size and mass and 40 percent cooler than the sun.
Be that as it may, the other planets are still too close to it to be viable for habitation. The closer of the two is also considered a super-Earth. It's 22 percent bigger than our planet with nearly double the mass. Its average temperature is almost 500 degrees Fahrenheit, and its orbit around the star is less than four days.
The other planet has a bigger mass than Earth, but only about three times as much. It completes its orbit around the star in approximately nine days with temperatures reaching 260 degrees Fahrenheit.
