Yet another exciting step in the ongoing search for extraterrestrial life.Astronomers took a look at three very promising nearby exoplanets using the world's most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and made some incredible discoveries.
The three exoplanets, similar to those found in our inner-solar system, circle a nearby star called L98-59. It turns out that one of them is only half the mass of Venus (making it the exoplanet with the lowest mass ever measured using radial velocity detection). The second planet turned out to be an ocean world, and the third planet orbits its host star within the habitable zone.
On top of all this, the team may have found two additional "hidden" exoplanets that had not previously been spotted in this planetary system. They discovered a fourth planet and suspect there is also a fifth at the right distance from the star for liquid water to exist on its surface.
The team hopes to further study the promising L 98-59 system in the future with the help of the upcoming James Webb telescope and the Extremely Large Telescope (currently under construction in the Atacama Desert).
The latter is unlikely to be finished before 2027 but is ideally suited for exoplanet research as it may be powerful enough to study the atmospheres of some of the exoplanets in the L 98-59 system.
Altogether we live in exciting times when it comes to exoplanet discoveries. We, for one, are very excited about future research into this captivating star system.
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