Time to pack your bags, two potentially habitable super-earths discovered; details

Two rocky celestial bodies larger than Earth have been discovered orbiting the 'Habitable Zone' of a Red Dwarf star and scientists believe one of these might be potentially habitable because it is very much like Earth. In fact it is the second most Earth-like exoplanet discovered so far.

The Exoplanets are called LP 890-9b, and LP890-9c the Red dwarf star they are orbiting is called LP890-9. The SPECULOOS project has spotted these celestial bodies. SPECULOOS is short for Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars, and the project consists of two observatories with four telescopes each, and their main work is to look for Earth-sized exoplanets around 1000 Red and brown Dwarfs.

Among the two habitable exoplanets, the LP 890-9c is also known as SPECULOOS-2c, while their Star is known as SPECULOOS-2. Researchers who have spotted the habitable exoplanet SPECULOOS-2c are now counting on James Webb

Space Telescope (JWST) to take a look and provide more information about the planet.

"This could inform us about the planet’s potential to host life. Being in the habitable zone around a star means the conditions aren’t too hot or too cold, so liquid water could exist on the surface."

With a radius 30-40% larger than Earth, SPECULOOS 2c seems habitable but the exoplanet takes 8.4 days to orbit its Star and is Tidally locked, which it doesn't spin on its axis, leading to the planet having a permanent day on one side and permanent night on one side. Despite this, the research team believes it could be the second most habitable exoplanet discovered yet after TRAPPIST-1e which is outside our Solar System, with high chances of having liquid water on its surface.

However, the relative closeness of SPECULOOS 2c to its Star could mean higher radiation and might be difficult to sustain life.

The findings were published in here