In Our Ongoing Search for Alien Life, Astronomers Have Scoured the Cosmos, Longing for a Connection Beyond Our Own World.
Even while the prospect of coming across sentient creatures is still far off, we may have accidentally discovered a planet that remarkably resembles our own. Astronomers have made a stunning discovery: an exoplanet that resembles Earth and may be habitable is only 40 light-years away from Earth, with temperatures that are only marginally warmer than Earth's. Every 12.8 days, this fascinating new world—dubbed Gliese 12 b—completes one orbit around its star. With a surface estimated temperature of 42°C, it is somewhat smaller than Earth and has a similar size to Venus. This makes it colder than the majority of the more than 5,000 verified exoplanets (planets outside our solar system).
Right now, its atmosphere is the main concern ~
It could have an atmosphere similar to Earth's, a terrifying greenhouse like Venus, or a completely different composition not found anywhere else in our solar system. If its atmospheric mysteries are solved, we may be able to determine whether or not Griese 12b can maintain temperatures that are sufficient for liquid water. This would therefore suggest that it has the capacity to support life. This research may also shed light on why Venus and Earth have evolved to have such dissimilar environments in spite of their similarities.
NASA has emphasized the importance of Gliese 12 b, pointing out that it is one of the few Earth-like exoplanets that merits further investigation. The James Webb Space Telescope should definitely investigate this world more because it is said to be "the nearest, transiting, temperate, Earth-size world located to date."Gliese 12b revolves around Gliese 12, a cold red dwarf star in the constellation Pisces that is around 40 light-years distant. The star's surface temperature is almost 60% that of the sun, and it is roughly 27% the size of our sun. This finding has ramifications that go beyond the boundaries of a particular exoplanet. It could show whether the majority of Milky Way stars, which are categorized as cold stars, are capable of supporting temperate planets with atmospheres, which would enable them to support life.
This artist's concept of Gliese 12 b shows it retaining a thin atmosphere
(Source: Google Images)
Other Various Insight On Recent Discovery ~
It is interesting to note that the distance between Gliese 12 b and its host star is only 7% of the distance between Earth and the sun. As a result, the exoplanet experiences about 85% of Venus's solar radiation and receives 1.6 times more energy than Earth. Because of this close closeness, the planet's surface temperature is greatly influenced by its atmospheric conditions. The average surface temperature of Earth is 15°C, whereas estimations set the temperature of Gliese 12 b at 42°C.
Larissa Palethorpe, a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh and University College London who co-led the research, commented on these findings, saying, "It is thought that Earth's and Venus's first atmospheres were stripped away and then replenished by volcanic outgassing and bombardments from residual material in the solar system."Venus cannot support life because it has completely lost its water, but Earth is. Given that Gliese 12 b's temperature is in the range of Earth and Venus, its atmosphere may hold valuable insights into the habitability pathways that planets follow during their formation.
