# Astronomers Find Ross 318 b, a Temperate Super-Earth in the Habitable Zone of a Red Dwarf Just 28 Light-Years Away

*2026-05-27 22:01 UTC · Science · 1 min read*

> Astronomers detected Ross 318 b, a roughly 6-Earth-mass super-Earth in the habitable zone of a red dwarf just 28 light-years away, a prime target for JWST atmospheric studies.

A team led by Giuseppe Conzo of Italy's Gruppo Astrofili Palidoro, working with collaborators in Italy and Brazil, has detected a new exoplanet orbiting the nearby red dwarf Ross 318 (also known as Gliese 48), located just 28 light-years from Earth. The discovery was reported on May 11, 2026, on the arXiv preprint server.

The planet, Ross 318 b, has a minimum mass of about 6.2 times that of Earth and circles its star every 39.6 days at roughly 0.16 AU. It receives about 58% of the sunlight Earth gets, giving it an equilibrium temperature near 237 K and placing it squarely in the star's conservative habitable zone. Researchers estimate a radius around 1.74 times Earth's.

Its mass suggests Ross 318 b could hold a substantial atmosphere able to redistribute heat from its day side to its likely tidally locked night side. That makes it one of the most promising temperate super-Earths for follow-up atmospheric study, including transmission spectroscopy with the James Webb Space Telescope.

## Sources

- [phys.org](https://phys.org/news/2026-05-astronomers-super-earth-orbiting-nearby.html)
- [arxiv.org](https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.11123)

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Česká verze: https://techtools.cz/tools/news/clanek/1798-astronomove-objevili-ross-318-b-mirnou-super-zemi-v-obyvatelne-zone-cerveneho