A team of astronomers has discovered the three smallest confirmed planets ever detected outside our solar system.
Who discovered them?
The three planets, discovered by scientists led by Philip Muirhead from the University of California, all orbit a single star, are smaller than Earth and appear to be rocky with a solid surface.
Which is this planetary system?
KOI-961 is the planetary system. KOI-961 is a red dwarf arond which the 3 planets Kepler-20e, Kepler-20f and Kepler-10b revovle.
KOI-961 has a diameter one-sixth that of the sun’s, making it just 70 percent bigger than Jupiter.
Each of the three planets needs less than two days to zip around their star, and all three are about one hundred times closer to that star than Earth is to the sun.
