The new planet has been dubbed HD 219134b, and can’t be seen directly even with telescopes, but the star the planet orbits is visible to the human eye in the Cassiopeia constellation, near the North Star, NASA said in a statement.
But the telescope sees the dimming of the star, and can calculate the planet’s size and other parameters based on it.
The planet weighs 4.5 times more than Earth, and has a fast three-day orbit around its star.
HD 219134b is also the closest example of a transiting planet, that is to say, a planet which crosses in front of its star and can be studied.
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