NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has successfully determined the size of the nearest Earth-sized exoplanet, named LTT 1445Ac, which regularly transits across its host star. This could open up avenues for subsequent studies aiming to unravel the mysteries of its atmosphere.
Discovered by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) in 2022, the exoplanet posed challenges due to uncertainties in its orbital geometry.
TESS lacked the optical resolution to precisely measure the planet's size, leaving the possibility of a grazing transit, where the planet barely skims the star's surface, providing an inaccurate diameter estimate.
Hubble's observational prowess overcame this limitation, confirming a full transit of LTT 1445Ac across its star's disk. The accurate measurement revealed the exoplanet's diameter to be only 1.07 times that of Earth, establishing it as a rocky world akin to our own, with similar surface gravity.
Hubble's observational prowess overcame this limitation, confirming a full transit of LTT 1445Ac across its star's disk. The accurate measurement revealed the exoplanet's diameter to be only 1.07 times that of Earth, establishing it as a rocky world akin to our own, with similar surface gravity.
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