NASA Telescope Spots A Temperate Super-Earth And It's Closer Than Expected

by Aaron Leong — Monday, March 16, 2026, 10:23 AM EDT

Astronomers have just discovered TOI-1080 b, a rocky super-Earth located approximately 83 light-years away. Spearheaded by a team from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, follow-up monitoring could reveal even more planets around TOI-1080, the inactive M-dwarf star.

The planet was initially flagged by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which monitors thousands of stars for minute flickers caused by passing planets. Follow-up observations from ground-based telescopes verified the signal, revealing a world about 1.2 times the radius of Earth. While its mass is still being refined, current estimates suggest it is around 1.75 times as heavy as Earth, confirming its rocky composition.

tess discovers a super — *Normalized TESS light curve. The 45,967 individual photometric points are shown in gray. The transits of TOI-1080 b are marked by the pink triangles. (Credit: arXiv [2026])*

What makes TOI-1080 b particularly fascinating is its extreme proximity to its host star, completing a full year in just 3.97 days, orbiting at a mere fraction of the distance between Mercury and our Sun. Despite this tight orbit, because its host star is an inactive M4V-type star (meaning it's significantly cooler and smaller than the Sun), the planet maintains an equilibrium temperature of roughly 368 Kelvin (about 95° C or 203° F). Even if that's too hot for liquid water on the surface, it is considered relatively temperate for a world orbiting so closely.

Now, astronomers have long noticed something called the radius valley, i.e. a lack of planets between 1.5 and 2 times the size of Earth, suspecting that radiation from stars often strips away the thick atmospheres of worlds in this range. TOI-1080 b sits right at the edge of this transition, offering itself as a example to study atmospheric loss. Early models suggest the planet might still cling to a dense layer of carbon dioxide or even oxygen, though confirming this will require further atmospheric studies to confirm if TOI-1080 b has an atmosphere to begin with.

Meanwhile, the team also believes that the estimated five to seven billion year old M-dwarf star could be playing host to additional planets. Currently TESS' mission is to survey approximately 200,000 stars near the sun while searching for transiting exoplanets. So far, TESS has cataloged 7,900 potential objects of interest, of which 759 of those have been officially confirmed.