The shock finding comes after a study found life could exist on four close planets to the Earth like sphere. According to Forbes, the discovery was made by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanets Survey Satellite (TESS), which has been orbiting a planet near Neptune. That represented the 10th planet discovery by TESS.
Speaking about the latest breakthrough, Diana Dragomir – an author of literature about TESS and scientist – said: “It’s a milestone for TESS.
“It sets the path for finding smaller planets around even smaller starts, and those planets may potentially be habitable.”
Johanna Teske, a researcher at Carnegie Institution for Science, added: “It’s so exciting that TESS is already a game-changer in the planet-hunting business.
“The spacecraft surveys the sky and we collaborate with the TESS follow-up community to flag potentially interesting targets for additional observations using ground-based telescopes and instruments.”
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Astronomers found a star which is approximately 89 percent of the Earth’s diameter.
They believe it is likely to be a rocky world, with temperatures soaring as high as 427 celsius.
TESS is a planet-hunting spacecraft.
Scientists designed it to track Earth-like planets.
The programme watches around 400,000 stars in a bid to find the correct planets.
The latest development comes days after NASA’s Curiosity rover dug up clay samples which led to claims life may exist on Mars.
The bot is currently drilling into the Red Planet to collect samples of Martian clay.
Scientists feel these may contain water.
