3. Luminous Exoplanet
Found Year: 2013.
Who Found It: MIT researchers
Where: Circling Kepler-78
A planet the size of Earth was found in 2013 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers orbiting a star like our sun in a distant star system. For people who are searching for a planet that is habitable to move to, this may sound fantastic; but, the planet they discovered is quite far away from being able to support life.
Exoplanet fiery @nasa/PInterest
Being the planet closest to the sun and all, you might have assumed that Mercury was hot. However, Kepler-78b is 40 times closer to its star and, as a result, around 40 times hotter. Another scientific enigma is how the planet can survive at all in that intense heat.
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