The European Southern Observatory just discovered the second-closest temperate planet to our solar system, and it may host life. Video provided by Newsy Newslook
Well, hello neighbor!
A planet with some similarities to Earth has been discovered "only" 11 light-years (that's a mere 64 trillion miles) from our solar system, astronomers announced in a study published Wednesday.
The new world is named Ross 128b (the star is known as Ross 128) and is now the second-closest planet yet detected that may have a surface temperature similar to Earth. Only the planet Proxima b, which orbits around the star Proxima Centauri, is closer, at 4.2 light-years away.
The planet is also roughly the same size as Earth.
An added bonus is that Ross 128b is also the closest planet yet discovered that orbits a rather quiet, inactive red dwarf star, which may increase the chances that this planet could potentially sustain life. That's because unlike other stars, such as Proxima Centauri, the star Ross 128 doesn't produce deadly ultraviolet flares and X-ray radiation.
Red dwarfs are some of the coolest, faintest — and most common — stars in the universe.
In fact, astronomers say this exoplanet may be the closest known comfortable abode for possible life. An exoplanet is any planet not in our solar system.
Although it is currently 11 light-years from Earth, Ross 128 is moving towards us and is expected to become our nearest stellar neighbor in just 79,000 years. At that point, Ross 128b will take the crown from Proxima b and become the closest exoplanet to Earth.
The new planet was discovered with the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS), which is located at an observatory in Chile.
“This discovery is based on more than a decade of HARPS intensive monitoring," said Nicola Astudillo-Defru of the University of Geneva in Switzerland, who co-authored the study. "Only HARPS has demonstrated such a precision and it remains the best planet hunter of its kind, 15 years after it began operations,” he said.
Astronomers are now detecting more and more of these temperate exoplanets, and the next stage will be to study their atmospheres, composition and chemistry in more detail, scientists said.
So far, NASA's Exoplanet Archive has about 3,500 alien worlds, only a small fraction of which are potentially similar to Earth.
The discovery was published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
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