NASA reported in a statement that it had discovered a Earth-like planet 40 light years away which could be a promising candidate to host human life. The exoplanet, called Gliese 12 b, it is slightly smaller than our planet and has an estimated average surface temperature of 42°C, assuming it has no atmosphere. Gliese 12 b is located just inside the habitable zone, that is, at a distance from a star where there might be liquid water on the surface of orbiting planets.
Astronomers now plan to analyze Gliese 12 b to determine whether it has an Earth-like atmosphere, which could reveal whether the exoplanet can maintain the right temperature for water to form on its surface, the compound essential to supporting life .
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Gliese 12 b has been classified as “the closest transiting, temperate, Earth-sized world to date” and is a candidate for future exploration by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
The temperature of Gliese 12 b is between that of Earth and that of Venus
An international team of astronomers used the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) of NASA to identify the position of Gliese 12 b. The team found that Gliese 12 b has a much narrower orbit than Earth’s, meaning it passes through its cool red dwarf star, called Gliese 12, more often and completes one orbit every 12.8 days.
“Atmospheres trap heat and, depending on the type, can substantially change the effective surface temperature,” Dholakia explained. “We quote the ‘equilibrium temperature’ of the planet, which is the temperature it would be if it had no atmosphere“.
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The team compared Gliese 12 b to Venus, reporting that it is about the same size and receives slightly less energy from its star, about 85%. Because Gliese 12 b’s temperature is between that of Earth and Venus, its atmosphere could teach us a lot about the habitability paths that planets follow during their development“, explained Larissa Palethorpe, a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh and University College London.
“Gliese 12 b represents one of the best targets to study whether Earth-sized planets orbiting cool stars can maintain their atmospheres, a crucial step in advancing our understanding of the habitability of planets in our galaxy.”said Shishir Dholakia, a doctoral candidate at the NASA Center for Astrophysics at the University of South Queensland, Australia.
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The distance between the exoplanet and its dwarf star is only 7% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun, giving it 1.6 times more energy. However, the habitability conditions of Gliese 12 b depend on whether it has the same type of atmosphere as Earthwhich would bring its temperature closer to the average of our planet which is 15°C.
Gliese 12 shows no signs of storms
An important factor in understanding whether the exoplanet might be habitable is looking at the level of storms emitted by its star. Normally, red dwarf stars are magnetically active, so they emit frequent flares of X-rays that could destroy the atmosphere. However, researchers hope that this does not happen, since Gliese 12’s star showed no signs of storms or extreme behavior. To better understand the diversity of atmospheres and evolutionary outcomes of these exoplanets, we need more examples like Gliese 12 b,” said Michael McElwain, a research astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and co-author of the Gliese 12 b study.
References to the news:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14581
