by Ruth Titz-Weider (DLR) & Tanja Schumann (TU Berlin), October 2024
With half the mass of the Earth, the newly discovered planet is one of the lightest of the over 5,000 exoplanets known today. With an impressive orbital speed of less than 8 hours, GJ 367 b belongs to the class of ‘fast travellers’.
With a diameter of just over 9,000 kilometres, GJ 367 b is slightly larger than Mars. From the determination of its radius and mass, it can be categorised as a rocky planet.
The distance of just under 31 light years from Earth is ideal for further investigations. Above all, to study how rocky planets like Earth form and evolve.
Artist’s impression of the ultra-hot exoplanet GJ-367 b: two-thirds the size of Earth, and so close to its star that the surface can easily be over 1300°C hot. Credit: SPP 1992 / Patricia Klein
The new exoplanet’s host star, a red dwarf called GJ 367, is only about half the size of the sun. This was favourable for the discovery, as the transit signal of the orbiting planet was particularly strong.
The results were published in the journal ‘Science’ on 2 December 2021.
Here you can find an article by DLR.