As Earth continues to extinguish its limited years and resources, scientists have been trying to find a habitable place for humanity to flourish and not get extinct if the blue planet becomes inhabitable.
Now, in a remarkable finding, NASA has said it has discovered a “super-Earth” which has potential conditions and temperature for sustaining life.
The newly discovered exoplanet, which is 137 light years away from Earth, has been orbiting within a “habitable zone,” as per NASA.
As per the astronomers, the exoplanet dubbed TOI-715b is around one and half times the Earth’s width and has been orbiting a small, reddish star.
In its press release, NASA said the same system can also host another Earth-sized planet, which, if confirmed, “would become the smallest habitable-zone planet discovered by TESS [the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite] so far.”
Because of the distance of the super-Earth from its parent star, it carries the possibility of becoming a conservative “habitable zone” and can attain the right temperature for the formation of liquid water on its surface which is important for sustaining life, as per the space agency and also added that “several other factors would have to line up, of course.”
NASA stated that as per the conservative measurements of the habitable zone, “a narrower and potentially more robust definition than the broader ‘optimistic’ habitable zone”, places the newly discovered planet in a “prime position” from its parent star.
The smaller Earth-sized planet is also likely to be placed in a conservative habitable zone.
A year on ‘super-Earth’ is equal to 19 Earth Days: NASA
The agency stated that due to the short distance between the super-Earth and its parent star, which is a red dwarf that is smaller and cooler in comparison to our Earth’s sun, a “year” for the exoplanet is equal to 19 Earth days.
The tighter orbits hint at the fact that the “planets can be more easily detected and more frequently observed,” said NASA.
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The James Webb Space Telescope has not only detected exoplanets but has also “explored the composition of their atmospheres, which could offer clues to the possible presence of life,” said NASA.
University of Birmingham’s Georgina Dransfield is headed by the discovery and research of the super-Earth and it was published in the “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society” journal in January.
The discovery marks another step forward in the mission of astronomers to understand what kind of atmospheric conditions are required to sustain life and also explore the exoplanets’ characteristics beyond our solar system, said NASA.
(With inputs from agencies)