Rare Exoplanet 'Super-Neptune' Discovered In Gliese 15A

Astronomers used the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo and the High-Resolution Echelle Spectrometer on the Keck Telescope to discover a rare type of exoplanet called a super-Neptune. It has been named so because the planet is almost 36 times the mass of Earth. Not only this, it is even larger than Neptune and located at a distance of just 11.6 light-years from Earth. 

 

This newly discovered super-Neptune is located in the Gliese 15 binary system in which planets move around two red dwarf (of M1- and M-3.5 type) stars. Astronomers, led by University of Hawaii astronomer Andrew Howard, located a super-Earth orbiting around the larger star, called Gliese 15A in 2014. “This super-Earth, named Gliese 15Ab, comes very close to the star with an orbital period of just 11.44 days, so it has extremely high surface temperatures of 530 degrees Fahrenheit (276 degrees Celsius),” reported Digital Trends.

 

Gliese 15Ab has a mass three times that of Earth and a period of just 11.44 days. It’s also super-heated, with a surface temperature of 276 degrees Celsius (530 degrees Fahrenheit).