Space experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered a planet that's closer to Earth, providing them the opportunity to study it easily.
The planet known as GJ 1132b is a rocky exoplanet, which is a celestial body that orbits around a star other than the Sun. The planet's star is also cooler and dimmer than the Sun.
The astronomers found the exoplanet as part of the MEarth-South study, which focuses on searching for terrestrial worlds that make orbits around red dwarf stars.
The exoplanet is hot enough that it can't support life, but it has an atmosphere that makes it comparable to a planet existing in the solar system, according to the Nov. 12 published study found in Nature Communications.
"Our ultimate goal is to find a twin Earth, but along the way we've found a twin Venus," David Charbonneau, an astronomer from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said in a news release. Charbonneau added that the planet likely has an atmosphere similar to that of Venus.
Based on calculations by scientists, GJ 1132b is approximately 1.2 times the size of the Earth and its mass is estimated to be 1.6 times that of Earth.
The experts also calculate the planet's temperature to be roughly 500 kelvins, equivalent to 440 degrees Fahrenheit. According to Zachory Berta-Thompson, co-author of the published report, the temperature is likened to an oven and life on its surface would be impossible. Still, the exoplanet is much cooler than the existing rocky planets.
The space experts believe that the latest discovery would pave the way for more scientific discoveries in the future. They are set to continue observing Venus' twin to find out if it has other relatives.
Hubble Space Telescope's larger successor, the James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to launch in 2018 and astronomers are aiming to use it to identify the chemical composition of GJ 1132b's atmosphere as well as know its weather situation.
