NASA discovered a 'super Earth' evaporating

NASA's new planet hunter - has just found the first alien world in the mission, a super-Earth that evaporates in the constellation Son Dung.

The newly discovered planet is named Pi Mensae c , having a diameter of 2.14 times and a mass of 4.82 times the earth. It orbits the parent star Pi Mensae, a yellow dwarf like our Sun.

TESS and super-Earth evaporate it just found - (NASA graphic image).

This Super Earth is located very close to the parent star, almost 50 times closer than the distance from Mercury to the sun. Calculations of planetary density show that this is almost a water planet but may have a rock core and an atmosphere with the main components of hydrogen and helium.

"We think the planet may be evaporating, due to the intense radiation it receives from its star " - scientist Chelse Huang - from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA), the lead author of research - said.

Before TESS came into operation, another planet in this planetary system was discovered, known as Pi Mensae b, a "super-Jupiter". It was a gas giant 10 times the size of Jupiter.

Pi Mensae mother star is a bright star in the Son Dung constellation (Latin name is Mensa, scientific name is HD 39091), located 59.5 light-years away. The reason for this name is Son Dung because this constellation looks very much like Table Mountain in South Africa.

The study has just been published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.