This Nearby Planet Looks Remarkably Like Earth — Except for One Major Flaw

A mere 22 light-years away from Earth, within the constellation Eridanus, there lies a planet remarkably similar to our own. Known as an exoplanet because it orbits a star other than our Sun, it's called LTT 1445Ac, and thanks to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, scientists now have a clear understanding of just how alike this planet is to Earth — and yet also, so very different.

LTT 1445Ac was discovered last year by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, but it couldn't tell exactly how large the planet was, or what it looked like at its surface.

What we did know was that it orbits a relatively cool star called a red dwarf and it takes a little over 3 days to complete an orbit, and we had enough information to suggest it was a similar size to Earth.

So to get a better view, a team of astronomers peered at the planet using Hubble, finding that it is just slightly larger than Earth — 1.07 times our planet's size — and has a rocky surface, just like us.

Gravity on LTT 1445Ac is also similar to that of Earth, which means if a human ever visited and walked around, we would feel much like we do plodding about on our own planet — except for one key difference.

LTT 1445Ac is absolutely scorching.

The surface temperature is estimated to be around 500 degrees Fahrenheit — that's too hot to support life as we know it. 

"Hubble remains a key player in our characterization of exoplanets", said Laura Kreidberg, a professor at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, in a statement.

"There are precious few terrestrial planets that are close enough for us to learn about their atmospheres," she added, which is why LTT 1445Ac is so special, as it is "right next door in galactic terms."

Studying it can tell astronomers more about the atmospheres around rocky planets like our own — and ultimately help answer why life has thrived on Earth.