Scientists searching for an Earth-like exoplanet have unexpectedly stumbled on a potential Venus twin called GJ 1132b.

The GJ 1132b planet is orbiting a small star Gliese 1132 (known as red dwarf) located a mere 39 light years from Earth. It is the closest Earth-sized exoplanet discovered. Its rocky surface measures about 440 degrees Fahrenheit and it has a permanent day and night side; meaning it is tidally locked and presents the same face to its star. The newly discovered plant is composed of rocks and metals just like the Earth.

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Its surface cannot retain liquid water because of its scorching temperatures, making it uninhabitable for life. But it can be cooled enough to host a substantial atmosphere, according to the scientists. The GJ 1132b is 16 percent larger than Earth and has a mass 60 percent greater than Earth with a diameter of about 9,200 miles.

Zachory Berta-Thompson from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research said that this planet will be a favorite target of astronomers for years to come. It is the most important planet ever found outside the solar system, astrophysicist Drake Deming at University of Maryland said.

The MEarth-South Observatory was used to discover the planet with Berta-Thompson and an international team of scientists from Brazil, Portugal, and France. This facility has a Harvard University-led array of eight 40-centimeter-wide robotic telescopes and is located in the mountains of Chile. Small, nearby stars called M dwarfs are monitored through through these telescopes.

On May 10, a robotic telescope was able to capture a faint dip from GJ 1132 and immediately observed it at much faster 45-second intervals. Along with other telescopes in Chile, it confirmed that brightness of GJ 1132 dimmed by 0.3 percent every 1.6 days which signals that a planet is regularly passing in front of the star.

The James Webb Space Telescope, which is the much larger successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, is set to be launched in October 2018. Berta-Thompson hopes that it will be used to identify the planet's atmosphere including the color and chemical makeup and the pattern of its winds. 

TagsGJ 1132b, planet discovered, exoplanet, planet discovered looks like earth, planet discovered similar to earth