NORFOLK, Va. — We've got a new kid on the block... well new planet in the cosmos...well probably not new at all.
NASA's TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) discovered yet another new planet in the universe. This one has similarities to something you'd see in a science fiction movie - Star Wars to be exact. You may remember the planet Tatooine. This fictional world orbited two suns. The newly discovered planet takes it a step - or a star - further. It is part of a three-star system.
The planet, LTT 1445 Ab, is slightly bigger than Earth. It is much closer to a star than we are to the Sun - it only takes 5 days to orbit the closest of its three stars. Because of this proximity, the temperature on LTT 1445 Ab's surface is above 300°. That's hot enough to bake cookies or a bread loaf. LTT 1445 Ab orbits the closest star and that star orbits the other two, farther away, stars. The "sibling stars", as NASA calls them, are in close orbit with each other.
More on the LTT 1445 system: https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/news/1598/discovery-alert-rocky-planet-swelters-under-three-red-suns/
The three stars are all red dwarfs. This means they are smaller and cooler than our planet star, the Sun.
LTT 1445 is one of a dozen new discoveries by NASA's TESS.