After more than a year of extra-stellar detective work, a Michigan State University professor has helped NASA confirm the existence of a new planet about 100 light years away that could be capable of supporting life. The newly confirmed planet, TOI-700e, is the third discovered in the TOI-700 solar system by Joey Rodriguez, an assistant professor in MSU’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, and a team of researchers working with NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, a space-based telescope that observes millions of stars and looks for planets passing in front of the stars. The team announced the discovery Tuesday at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle. In 2020, Rodriguez and his team first confirmed the existence of the TOI-700 solar system and at the time confirmed the existence of three planets — TOI-700b, TOI-700c, and TOI-700d. But there was some indication that there could be a fourth planet, Rodriguez said… (READ MORE)

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