A team of scientists have discovered a Super Earth orbiting around a red dwarf star located 32.7 light years away.
The exoplanet is named GJ536b. It is around 5.4 times the mass of the earth.
Planets up to
15 times the mass of the earth are classified
as Super Earths.
While the exoplanet is not located within the habitable zone of star GJ536, it has a short orbit period of just 8.7 days.
The exoplanet is rocky and orbits a star much smaller and cooler than the Sun. The star is sufficiently nearby and bright though.
The planet can be detected from the north as well as southern hemispheres.
It was detected by IAC and the Geneva Observatory and was detected by measuring the velocity of the star with the accuracy of the order of a metre per second.
Research was carried out using the HARPS ( High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Seeker) spectrograph in La Silla in Chile.
It was on a 3.6M ESO telescope. HARPS North was also used on the Telescopio Nacional Galileo at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in Garafia in Spain.
