Super-Earths May Be More Common Than We Thought, New Study Finds

India-West News Desk

BOSTON, MA – A new international study has revealed that super-Earths—planets larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune—may be far more common in the universe than scientists previously believed.

The research, published in the journal Science, was led by astronomers from Ohio State University, Harvard, and institutions in China and Korea. It used data from the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet), a global system of telescopes based in South Africa, Chile, and Australia.

Using a technique called gravitational microlensing, the team discovered that these super-Earths can exist far from their stars, in orbits similar to or even wider than Jupiter’s. This challenges earlier ideas that such planets only form and remain close to their host stars.

One key discovery was a planet named OGLE-2016-BLG-0007, a super-Earth about twice the size of Earth with an orbit larger than Saturn’s. It was found through microlensing, which happens when a planet’s gravity bends and magnifies the light of a distant background star.

“This study suggests that for every three stars, there may be at least one super-Earth with a wide, Jupiter-like orbit,” said Andrew Gould, professor emeritus at Ohio State and a co-author of the study. “That’s a big shift in how we think about planetary systems.”

While smaller planets are known to be more common than giant ones, this study highlights how little we know about planets farther from their stars. Traditional detection methods like transits and radial velocity mostly find planets that orbit closely. Microlensing, however, allows scientists to detect planets even at great distances from their stars.

The findings also open new questions about how planets form. Until now, scientists believed gas giants formed through a process called runaway gas accretion. But this research suggests gravitational instability could also play a role.

“We don’t yet know which formation process dominates,” Gould said. “But this adds a new piece to the puzzle.”

Finding planets through microlensing is rare—only 237 of over 5,000 known exoplanets have been discovered this way. Yet as technology and global cooperation improve, astronomers believe more discoveries are on the horizon.

“These new patterns in planet types are helping us understand how solar systems form and evolve,” said co-author Richard Pogge. “It’s like assembling the universe’s family tree.”

This study marks a significant step in the search for distant worlds—and possibly, worlds that could host life.