OGLE-2016-BLG-1195Lb


OGLE-2016-BLG-1195Lb is an extrasolar planet located nearly 13,000 light-years from Earth, orbiting the star OGLE-2016-BLG-1195L, which is only 7.8 percent the size of the Sun. This planet was detected in 2017 using gravitational microlensing techniques managed by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute and the Spitzer Space Telescope. It has a mass similar to Earth and is located about the same distance from its host star as the Earth is from the Sun. However, the host star is so small that it may not be a star at all. It may be "a brown dwarf or an ultracool dwarf" instead, so the planet is likely far too cold to be habitable. Based on its currently observed properties, the 'iceball' planet may be described as a very cold Earth-like exoplanet.

In popular culture

The planet has been referred to as Hoth due to its resemblance to the planet with the same name from the Star Wars franchise. A similar exoplanet, OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, has also been compared to Hoth, by NASA in this instance.