Scientists from NASA just confirmed the finding of the closest rocky planet in the nearest solar system to us . The planet is rotating around a star just 21 light years away .
Due to the distance from it's star , this planet is in no way a suitable candidate for life , unlike the recent found planet, Kepler 542-b , found at 1400 light years away .
The planet was discovered with the help of the Galileo National Telescope found in the Canary island.
Unfortunately , the new exoplanet found , and yes its an exoplanet , being outside our solar system , can't be seen from our planet with the naked eye and currently has no memorable name . It's just called HD 219134b .
Why should we be happy for this new discovery ?
These types of planets are "worth their weight in gold," said Michael Werner, the project scientist for the Spitzer mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena
"Most of the known planets are hundreds of light-years away. This one is practically a next-door neighbour," said Lars A. Buchhave.
As I said before the planet can't sustain life , being too close to its star , but being so close to us and just at the right angle , so that is passes just between us and its star will let scientist perfect the method of analysing its composition and the approximate distance between it and the star .
These types of planets are "worth their weight in gold," Michael Werner, the project scientist for the Spitzer mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena
Scientists set their hopes on the new James Web Space Telescope , that is scheduled to
lunch in 2018 , to get a better view of all the exoplanets out there .
