l 98-59b
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NASA's TESS spacecraft discovers its smallest exoplanet to date
NASA's TESS spacecraft is continuing to find ever-smaller planets -- and that now includes planets smaller than the human homeworld. The vessel has found a planet in the L 98-59 system, L 98-59b, that's 80 percent the size of Earth -- and 10 percent smaller than TESS' previous tiniest finding. You won't be planning a vacation any time soon, unfortunately. The system is 34.6 light-years away, and all of the planets discovered so far (there are larger 59c and 59d planets) sit in the "Venus zone" where a runaway greenhouse gas effect could render them uninhabitable.
