researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Germany wants an exoplanet that is outside the solar system, which could be fit for life and that it has a mass similar to that of the earth. The celestial body is located just 31 light-years from us and orbits a star at a distance that would allow the presence of liquid water.
It’s about the exoplanet named as ‘Wolf 1069 b’ and the evidence suggests that it could have an atmosphere and a magnetic field, as well as “an eternal day and night“. According to the current conclusions of scientists, the search for life there It could be worth it, although it is estimated that there are still about ten years to go before we can observe it more closely.
Scientists discovered a possible “ocean planet”, 100 light years from Earth
The “Wolf 1069 b” orbits its star in 15.6 days and the distance between them is approximately one fifteenth that between the Earth and the Sun. Although it is closer, it only receives about 65% of the radiation power that our planet receives from the Sun, which makes it potentially suitable for life.
The rotation is presumably tied to the orbit around the central star. This means that always looks at its central star from the same side, so that on the one hand it is always “day” and, on the other, “night”. A similar situation occurs with the Moon, since one of its faces is always visible from Earth.
At the moment, there are very few exoplanets that fit into this category, and “Wolf 1069 b” is the sixth closest to Earth. Also found the “Proxima Centauri b”the closest to our home with 4.2 million light years, and the “Trappist-1 e”part of the most studied planetary system outside our own.
Is there life beyond Earth?
In 2022, NASA established that there are more than 5,000 planets outside our solar system currently known to scientists. These include gas giants larger than Jupiter and others in “very hot” and close orbits around their stars.
There are also small rocky worlds about the size of Earth that orbit a host star in the so-called ‘habitable zone’, which is the region around a star in which the incident radiation flux would allow the presence of liquid water Over the surface.
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Wolf 1069 b orbits the red dwarf Wolf 1069, which astronomers were originally studying with the CARMENES spectrograph at the Calar Alto Observatory in Spain. They noticed a small periodic change in the frequency of the light it emits, indicating that the star is wobbling slightly due to a planet pulling its gravity.
Dr. Diana Kossakowski, lead author of the study, commented in an interview: “When we analyzed the data from the star we discovered a clear, low-amplitude signal of what appears to be a planet about the mass of Earth“.
It is believed that the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), which is currently being built in Chile, could allow humans to observe the exoplanet. When completed, it will be the world’s largest optical telescope, some five times larger than the main observing instruments in use today.
FP / DE
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