Super small planet discovered outside the solar system

One of the smallest planets of another solar system was discovered by astronomers at the Southern European Observatory in North Chile.

A group of French and Swiss astronomers said they discovered the small planet orbits the star Gl 581 in the constellation Libra, 20.5 light-years from Earth. G1 581 is a red dwarf, the most popular type in our galaxy.

While the star is only one-third the mass of the sun, the planet orbits it only as big as a Neptune - 17 times the size of the earth. Because 80 of the 100 closest stars in the world are red dwarfs, astronomers are keen to find out if they have planets around them.

" Our results show that the planet is easy to be around the smallest stars. It also shows that red dwarfs are the ideal target for finding asteroids, " Xavier Delfosse, at the Physical Laboratory. studying the body of Grenoble of France, said.

Of the 170 known extrasolar planets, the newly discovered planet is among the smallest. It orbits 6 million kilometers from the star and takes 5.4 days to complete the rotation.

MT