When it comes to finding exoplanets, size matters, but so does weight. The larger and heavier the planet, the more likely they will be discovered by the current crop of telescopes. Both the techniques to find exoplanets and the telescopes using those techniques are biased toward larger, heavier planets. So when even the current crop of telescopes manages to find one that is about half the mass of Venus, it is cause for celebration. That is precisely the size of the planet a team from the European Southern Observatory’s
Very Large Telescope has found orbiting a star called L98-59.
Known as L98-59b, it is not the smallest exoplanet ever discovered. That title appears to be held by
Kepler-37b, which is roughly between the Moon and Mercury in size. But Kepler-37b was discovered using a different technique than L98-50b, which is the lightest planet on record so far discovered using the “radial velocity” technique of exoplanet detection.
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