NASA has discovered 3 planets smaller than Earth

Thanks to data from NASA's Kepler telescope, astronomers have discovered three planets smaller than Earth, orbiting a star much smaller than our Sun.

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The planets, orbiting a red dwarf named KOI-961 , have a diameter of only 0.78, 0.73 and 0.57 the diameter of the Earth and are the smallest known planets. ever. The smallest planet is about the size of Mars.

The star KOI-961 is 120 light-years from Earth, belonging to The Swan and about one-sixth the size of the Sun.

The planets are thought to be composed of rocks similar to Earth, but they are too close to the star to be in the area of ​​life, at least according to our standards.

The main researcher, John Johnson of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena City, USA, told Space.com : 'This is the smallest solar system ever known. This solar system is more like Jupiter and the moons of this planet than any other planetary system. '

This discovery is further evidence of the diversity of planetary systems in the Milky Way.

Recently, thanks to data from Kepler, scientists have discovered two Earth-sized planets orbiting a star 1,000 light-years away.