A New Venus? Twin Of The ‘Second Rock From The Sun’ Discovered Around Dim Star

A Venus-like planet that orbits a dim star, with one-fifth the diameter of the Sun, has been recently discovered by astronomers. Referred to as the twin of Venus, due to their similarities, the newly discovered planet Kepler 1649b is located 219 light-years away from Earth. Incidentally, Venus is also known as the "second rock from the Sun."

According to a Zee News report, the discovery was made with the help of NASA’s Kepler space telescope. The planet has been found to be slightly larger than Earth and makes a full orbit of its host star every 9 days. The tight orbit makes the flow of sunlight reaching the planet twice or thrice more than the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth. Incidentally, the parent star is an M dwarf called Kepler-1649 and it has a low temperature.

Scientists feel that the discovery is important because M dwarfs are in general among the most common stars in the universe. Therefore, finding a planet orbiting such a type of star provides astronomers with more details to study the nature of planets around them.

M Dwarf stars are dimmer and redder than the Sun. Recent discoveries of exoplanets have shown examples where Earth-sized planets orbit an M Dwarf in their habitable zone. However, in spite of being located in their host star’s habitable zone, such worlds may not resemble Earth -- in terms of the latter’s agreeable climate for supporting life. In fact, such planets could be compared more to Venus, with their scalding temperatures and thick atmospheres.

Many people are adamant about finding other Earth-like planets; however, “Venus analogues are just as important," said Kepler 1649b discovery team member Elisa Quintana, as reported by Press KS. "Since new telescopes coming down the pike will allow us to probe atmospheres, focusing on both Earth and Venus analogs may help us understand why in the Solar System, one planet allows life to thrive, and one does not, despite having comparable densities, similar masses, etc."