Well-known exoplanet researcher Michel Mayor today announced the
discovery of the lightest exoplanet found so far. The planet, “e”, in
the famous system Gliese 581, is only about twice the mass of our Earth.
The team also refined the orbit of the planet Gliese 581 d, first
discovered in 2007, placing it well within the habitable zone, where
liquid water oceans could exist. These amazing discoveries are the
outcome of more than four years of observations using the most
successful low-mass-exoplanet hunter in the world, the HARPS
spectrograph attached to the 3.6-metre ESO telescope at La Silla, Chile.
Read more in ESO 15/09 at
ESO - ESO 15/09 - Lightest exoplanet yet discovered
Kind Regards,
The ESO education and Public Outreach Department
21 April 2009