A super-Earth has been discovered just 10 light-years away

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A super-Earth has been discovered just 10 light-years away, which could 
harbor an atmosphere and water, but reaching it with current technology 
would take us about 15,000 years
Image Autor
By ECONEWS
Published On: May 3, 2026 at 6:30 PM
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Artist's impression of a rocky super-Earth exoplanet orbiting a red 
dwarf star in the GJ 887 system.

Astronomers have confirmed a planet called GJ 887d in the habitable zone 
of the nearby red dwarf star GJ 887. It circles every 50.8 days and has 
at least six times Earth’s mass. That makes it one of the closest known 
worlds where liquid water might be possible, if it has a stable atmosphere.

So is it close? In space terms, yes, but it is still about 63 trillion 
miles away, so this is a telescope story, not a travel story. The 
takeaway is that GJ 887d is now a more solid target for future 
atmosphere searches.

A calm star with a busy planetary system
GJ 887, also called Gliese 887 and Lacaille 9352, is a cool “red dwarf” 
that puts out only a few percent of the Sun’s light. That low energy 
shifts the habitable zone inward. Planets can orbit quickly and still be 
potentially temperate.

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In the new analysis, GJ 887d orbits about 20 million miles from its 
star, closer than Mercury is to the Sun, yet receives about 80% of the 
energy Earth gets. The same data confirm three other planets on tighter 
orbits, plus a weaker extra signal that could be another small planet. 
The team says that last signal needs more data.

How scientists spotted the wobble
The work comes from an international team led by astronomer C. Hartogh 
at the Institute of Astrophysics and Geophysics at the University of 
Göttingen, with partners including the University of St Andrews and 
Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics.

Their paper, “RedDots: multiplanet system around M dwarf GJ 887 in the 
solar neighborhood,” reanalyzed existing observations and added new ones 
to test whether the 51-day signal was real.


They used the radial velocity method, which detects a planet by 
measuring a star’s tiny back-and-forth motion.

The signal was measured with the HARPS spectrograph and the ESPRESSO 
spectrograph, instruments operated in Chile by the European Southern 
Observatory. Because starspots can imitate planets, the team also used a 
statistical model called a “Gaussian process” to subtract the star’s own 
noise.

What the habitable zone actually tells us
NASA defines a habitable zone as “the distance from a star at which 
liquid water could exist on orbiting planets’ surfaces,” sometimes 
called the “Goldilocks zone.” That definition is in this official 
habitable zone guide. It is a useful filter, but it is not a guarantee 
of oceans or biology.

For GJ 887d, the study’s basic temperature estimate without atmospheric 
warming is below freezing by Earth standards.


A thicker atmosphere could warm it, but too much greenhouse warming can 
turn a planet into an oven, as Venus shows with temperatures around 867 
degrees Fahrenheit. And with about six times Earth’s mass, GJ 887d could 
be rocky or it could have a deep, gas-rich atmosphere.

Why a quiet red dwarf matters
Red dwarfs can produce intense flares that erode atmospheres, which is 
one reason Proxima Centauri b remains controversial. GJ 887 looks 
calmer, and a 2020Science report highlighted its unusually low activity 
as good news for atmosphere retention “A multiplanet system of 
super-Earths orbiting the brightest red dwarf star GJ 887”.

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That earlier work also reported the same 51-day signal as a candidate 
planet.

The new paper builds on that by measuring the star’s rotation at about 
39 days and using that cycle to separate stellar noise from planet 
signals. A calm star today does not prove it was calm when it was young, 
so habitability remains uncertain. But cleaner data make follow-up 
observations more realistic.

Artist's impression of a rocky super-Earth exoplanet orbiting a red 
dwarf star in the GJ 887 system.
Astronomers have confirmed that GJ 887d sits in the “Goldilocks zone” of 
its star, making it one of the most promising candidates for future 
atmosphere and water searches.
Why we cannot travel there anytime soon
Even at about 11 light-years away, GJ 887d is far beyond any near-term 
mission. At about 430,000 miles per hour, the Parker Solar Probe would 
still need roughly 16,000 to 17,000 years to get there, based on its 
speed described in a recent Parker Solar Probe status update. That is 
why “nearby” planets are studied remotely.

Remote sensing means squeezing clues from light, such as heat changes 
over an orbit or, someday, direct images of the planet next to its star. 
Scientists also look for signs of an atmosphere, including clouds and 
strong greenhouse gases, even if they cannot yet read a full chemical 
fingerprint. Slow, yes, but it is progress.

What comes next for GJ 887d
The next big question is straightforward. Does GJ 887d have a 
substantial atmosphere, and if it does, is it the kind that could 
support liquid water at the surface? Because the planet does not appear 
to pass in front of its star, many common atmosphere tests are harder.

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Even so, proximity helps. A nearby, bright star gives future 
observatories more photons to work with, improving attempts at direct 
imaging or thermal measurements. If scientists can constrain temperature 
swings and reflectivity, they may narrow down whether this is a rocky 
world with weather or a thicker, Neptune-like planet.

For now, the discovery is less about claiming a living world and more 
about building a shortlist of the best targets. GJ 887d is close enough 
to keep showing up in telescope plans, and quiet enough to keep data 
cleaner than usual for a red dwarf system. That combination is rare.

The main study has been published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.