Free Astronomy Magazine September-October 2021

48 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2021 ASTRO PUBLISHING A team of astronomers have used the European South- ern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) in Chile to shed new light on planets around a nearby star, L 98-59, that resemble those in the inner Solar System. Amongst the findings are a planet with half the mass of Venus — the lightest exoplanet ever to be meas- ured using the radial velocity tech- nique — an ocean world, and a possible planet in the habitable zone. “The planet in the habitable zone may have an atmosphere that could protect and support life,” says María Rosa Zapatero Osorio, an as- L 98-59, a rather interesting system by ESO - Bárbara Ferreira