A newly discovered planet 40% larger than Earth may be suitable for life

One of the new "super-Earth" type planets may be suitable for life.

The nearly 1,600 known super-earths are larger than Earth but lighter than icy planets.

Researchers at the University of Lige used Earth-based telescopes to confirm the existence of another planet in the same solar system.

NASA's satellite found a planet that is 30% larger than Earth and flies around the sun in just over three weeks. The researchers used their telescopes to look at the planet with high-precision cameras.

That's when the stargazers discovered another planet, which is 40% larger than Earth and takes just over a week to circle the sun.

A researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia and one of the main co-authors of the paper said in a news release that the planet could be suitable to live on. Earth is over 93 million miles from our sun.

The amount of stellar irradiation it receives is still low and could allow the presence of liquid water on the planet's surface if it has a sufficient atmosphere. The starLP 890-9 has a surface temperature half that of our star and is about 6.5 times smaller.

Light levels of thousands of stars are monitored by NASA's TESS, which searches for planets around nearby stars. There are new planets discovered when a planet passes in front of a star.

ULige scientists use ground-based telescopes to confirm the findings of NASA.