NASA’s Spitzer Telescope Finds Closest Exoplanet

Scientists have found evidence for a new planet that could be the nearest world to our solar system.

NASA astronomers using the Spitzer Space Telescope have detected what they believe is a planet two-thirds the size of the Earth.

The exoplanet candidate, dubbed "UCF-1.01," is just 33 light-years away from our home planet and is the first to be identified by the Spitzer telescope.

The discovery points to a possible role for Spitzer in helping discover potentially habitable, terrestrial-sized worlds.

"We have found strong evidence for a very small, very hot and very near planet with the help of the Spitzer Space Telescope," said Kevin Stevenson from the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

Stevenson is the lead author of the paper, which has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. "Identifying nearby small planets such as UCF-1.01 may one day lead to their characterization using future instruments."

According to NASA, exoplanets circle stars beyond our sun. So far, only a handful of smaller-than-Earth exoplanets have been found.

UCF-1.01 was found unexpectedly by scientists while studying the Neptune-sized exoplanet GJ 436b, already known to exist around the red-dwarf star GJ 436.

In the Spitzer data, the astronomers noticed slight dips in the amount of infrared light streaming from the star, separate from the dips caused by GJ 436b.

A review of Spitzer archival data showed the dips were periodic, suggesting a second planet might be blocking out a small fraction of the star's light.