Astronomers using data from the NASA Kepler spacecraft’s reborn K2 mission have found a triple system of super-Earth exoplanets around a cool star called LP 415-17.
LP 415-17, also known as EPIC 210897587 and 2MASS 04215245+2121131, is a mid-late type K-dwarf star located approximately 267 light-years from Earth.
The star has a radius about 58% that of our Sun, a mass 65% that of the Sun, and is home to at least three massive planets: LP 415-17b, c and d.
The planets were detected through the transit method — which measures dips in the amount of light from the star as a planet ‘transits,’ passes in front of it — by NASA’s extended Kepler exoplanet-hunting mission, known as K2.
To read more, click here.