New habitable zone super-Earth found in exosolar system

An international team of astronomers have discovered a new super-Earth in the habitable zone, where liquid water and a stable atmosphere could reside, around the nearby star HD 40307, the Carnegie Institute for Science announced Thursday in a statement. It is one of the three new super-Earths found around the star that has three other low-mass planets orbiting it. The study will be published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. HD 40307 is a dwarf star that is somewhat smaller and less luminous than the Sun that is about 42 light years away (12.88 parsecs). The previously discovered planets around it are called hot super-Earths because they orbit too close to the star to support life. The most interesting of the new planets is in the outermost orbit from the star, a distance that is similar to the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Its mass is at least seven times the mass of the Earth. The team said the planet is likely to be rotating on its axis while in orbit, possibly creating a day/night cycle and an Earth-like environment.