Astronomers have made a rare and shocking discovery extraterrestrial Similar to this Tierra 40 light-years away, it may be slightly hotter than our own world.
An international investigation has found that Pisces is a extraterrestrial Moderate, intermediate in size and located in its star’s habitable zone, about 40 light-years away TierraThe Astrophysical Institute (IAC) of the Canary Islands, a Spanish Atlantic archipelago, announced this Thursday.
The planet is named Gliese 12 b Its discovery was made possible by facilities such as NASA’s TES satellite and the Carmen’s Spectrograph at the Calar Alto Observatory (Almeria) and Muscat2 from the Carlos Sánchez Telescope at the TEET Observatory in the Canary Islands (Tenerife). Islands.
Gliese 12 b It lies within the habitable zone of its star, a cool red dwarf, making it a “probable candidate” for studying its atmosphere with the James Webb Space Telescope, the IAC said in a statement.
about this extraterrestrial Similar in size Tierra The closest to the date is found by the transit method, i.e. observing the periodic dimming of its star caused by the planet’s path.
Gliese 12 b It has a diameter comparable to that of Venus, slightly smaller than Venus. Layera, and its surface temperature is estimated to be about 42 °C.
The final temperature depends on whether the planet has been able to retain its atmosphere and its composition from the time of its formation to the present.
He extraterrestrial It orbits its host star every 12.8 days. Glass 12A cool red dwarf located nearly 40 light-years away in the constellation Pisces, it has a mass 27% that of the Sun and a surface temperature 60% that of the Sun.
separation distance Glass 12 of extraterrestrial “Only” 7% of the distance between Tierra and the Sun, so it receives 1.6 times more energy from its star than our planet.
“Though I don’t know yet Gliese 12 b It has an atmosphere, and with the same size and energy derived from its star as our planet’s neighbor in the Solar System, we think it’s an exo-Venus,” said Masayuji Kuzuhara, associate professor of the program at the Department of Astronomy. Center in Tokyo and co-leader of the research team that published it. The results appear in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Gliese 12 b “Planets are one of the best targets to study if they have size Tierra “Cold stars in orbit can retain their atmospheres, which is an important step towards improving our understanding of life on planets across our galaxy,” said Shishir Dholakia, an astrophysicist at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia.
Shishir Dholakia is the principal investigator of another group Parallel and independent results in the journal ‘Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society’.
A unique candidate for atmospheric studies
It is “a unique candidate for new atmospheric studies that could help unravel some aspects of the evolution of our own solar system,” explained IAC researcher Enrique Paul, who participated in the discovery.
However Tierra And Venus are planets so similar in size and mass, their histories are so different, remember: The Tierra It’s still habitable, but Venus isn’t because of its total water loss.
Atmosphere Gliese 12 b Enrique Paul says it can teach us a lot about atmospheric evolution and how habitable conditions on terrestrial planets develop.
A key factor in maintaining an atmosphere is the stormy nature of its star, the report points out, which makes red dwarfs tend to behave magnetically, leading to frequent and powerful bursts of X-rays and ultraviolet radiation.
However, the analyzes of both teams conclude that Glass 12 It shows no signs of extreme behavior, making the system an ideal candidate for studying its atmosphere with the James Webb Space Telescope.
Thanks to current technology, the transport method can be used to analyze the chemical composition of atmospheres, the researchers point out. Extraterrestrials.
By studying the unique pattern of chemical fingerprints formed when starlight passes through a planet’s gaseous shell, it is possible to identify the molecules present and better understand their composition.
To date, “only a few transiting planets are known to be close to Earth.” Tierra They meet the criteria required for this type of study; Gliese 12 bAn exceptional candidate, it could help better understand the diversity of atmospheres around temperate planets Tierra”, concluded Balle.
(with information from EFE)
