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A new "super-Earth" has been detected in the habitable zone of a nearby red dwarf star located 59 light-years away, offering a fresh hope for the search for habitable planets. (One light-year, the distance light travels in one year, is roughly 9.46 trillion kilometres.)

 

The planet, named GJ 3998, has a mass six times greater than Earth's and orbits the red dwarf. This discovery is part of a study led by Atanas Stefanov, a predoctoral researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), and is the third planet found in this star system.

 

"The discovery of GJ 3998 is a welcome addition to the planetary census of our cosmic neighbourhood," said Stefanov, who is also the lead author of the study published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. GJ 3998 is located within its star’s habitable zone, an area where conditions may be suitable for liquid water to exist—a key ingredient for life as we know it. However, researchers note that while the planet is far from identical to Earth, it remains a valuable candidate for further exploration.

 

The planet’s orbit around GJ 3998 takes just 41.8 days, a much shorter period than Earth’s due to its star being smaller and cooler than the Sun. Alejandro Suárez Mascareño, IAC researcher and co-author of the study, said, "Although it is certainly different from Earth, if the planet is rocky, it could be capable of hosting liquid water on its surface, one of the main requirements for life."

 

This discovery comes from the HADES programme, a collaborative international effort using the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma. Red dwarfs, like GJ 3998, are smaller, cooler stars that are abundant in our galaxy, making them prime targets for the search for low-mass planets.

 

The detection of GJ 3998 follows the discovery of two other planets in the same system, first detected in 2016. “With three known planets in the system, GJ 3998 highlights how common multi-planet systems are,” said Stefanov. "Planets, particularly low-mass ones, rarely exist alone. Often, when we re-study a system, we find planets that had previously gone unnoticed."

 

National and international astronomers are keen to study this system further, with GJ 3998 being an ideal candidate for atmospheric analysis, including the search for oxygen.

 

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