Astronomers have found another "perfect" exoplanet
Source:
Nowadays, astronomers are beginning to find potentially habitable exoplanets, but the latest find could be the most intriguing. The planet is called LHS 1140b, it is a bit more Land and is located approximately 40 light years from us.
"This is the most promising exoplanet that I have seen over the last 10 years" — says lead researcher Jason Dittman of the Harvard-Smithsonian center for astrophysics.
"the planet is a perfect candidate for the search for extraterrestrial life outside the Solar system."
the Artistic representation of the planet LHS 1140b and red dwarf
LHS 1140b is the so-called super-earths – planet with a mass larger than the earth (but not more than 10 times), but has size of only 1.4 times bigger than Earth. According to the researchers, this may indicate high density of its composition and, probably, the presence of a dense iron core.
But does the planet LHS 1140b interesting not even its size and density, it is interesting primarily because the so-called habitable region of its star – a dim red dwarf star LHS 1140, located in the constellation Cetus. The planet is about 10 times closer to its star than Earth is to the Sun, but as the star LHS 1140 significantly colder than our sun, that may mean that its radiation has not yet nuked everything that can be on this planet, because the amount of heat which it receives about half of what our planet receives from the Sun.
"Conditions, which provides a red dwarf, we can say, very favorable for the planet. LHS 1140 rotates slower than the Sun and emits less highly charged particles compared with other similar low-mass stars," — says one of the researchers, astronomer, Nicolas Astudillo-DEFRA from the Geneva Observatory.
From this we can conclude that the planet provided a sufficient amount of heat (not too much and not too little) to support water in liquid form (if, of course, there is on the planet), which, in turn, is an important component of the life as we know it.
Found a LHS 1140b planet using the HARPS instrument at the Observatory of La Silla, located in Chile and owned by the European southern Observatory. The estimated age of the exoplanet is about 5 billion years, and the alleged conditions were not always welcoming. Most likely, when red dwarf was younger, his temper was much hotter, which could lead to the disappearance of water from the atmosphere LHS 1140b, if of course she ever had.
Nevertheless, astronomers hope that the planet managed to maintain or at least restore their atmosphere, due to rising magmatic vapors, which could be attributed to her in her distant past.
To test their hypothesis, the scientists plan to continue studying LHS 1140b using the space telescope "Hubble", as well as the European extremely large telescope (Extremely Large Telescope), whose construction should be completed in 2024 (to wait for a long time, but it's worth it).
It is Worth noting that it is not only remote from the world, caused excitement among scientists for the last time. This month, for example, astronomers announced the determination of the atmosphere around another super-earths – . It is approximately on the same distance to the Ground (about 39 light years). However to draw any hasty conclusions about its potential habitability scientists do not want until you know more information on them.
"Let's not forget the story around the system and another templatebuy the planet — . Both in fact are hardly perfect as a sanctuary for life, which they seemed at first glance".
And yet the optimism of the planet LHS 1140b among scientists is also present.
"the System LHS 1140 may be a more important goal than b and Proxima system TRAPPIST–1", — agree in opinion Delfosse Javier and Javier Bonfils of the French National center for scientific research.
Recommended
Can genes create the perfect diet for you?
Diet on genotype can be a way out for many, but it still has a lot of questions Don't know what to do to lose weight? DNA tests promise to help you with this. They will be able to develop the most individual diet, because for this they will use the m...
How many extraterrestrial civilizations can exist nearby?
If aliens exist, why don't we "hear" them? In the 12th episode of Cosmos, which aired on December 14, 1980, co-author and host Carl Sagan introduced viewers to the same equation of astronomer Frank Drake. Using it, he calculated the potential number ...
Why does the most poisonous plant in the world cause severe pain?
The pain caused to humans by the Gimpi-gympie plant can drive him crazy Many people consider Australia a very dangerous place full of poisonous creatures. And this is a perfectly correct idea, because this continent literally wants to kill everyone w...
Related News
LHCb found new hints on possible deviations from the Standard model
the LHCb Experiment, which operates in the framework of the Large hadron Collider at CERN, showed a curious anomaly in the decay of certain particles. If this information is confirmed we will receive new physical phenomena not pre...
Physicists have created a "negative mass"
Physics of the University of Washington have created a fluid with negative mass. Push it, and unlike all the physical objects in the world that we know, it will not accelerate in the direction of the push. It will accelerate in th...
Supermassive black holes in the Universe may be two times larger than previously thought
a New discovery by astronomers has the potential to double the number of supermassive black holes in the Universe. Science for a long time it was thought that supermassive black holes usually exist only in the centers of large gal...
Scientists have discovered a terrifying new species of molluscs
the Discovery of the animals is always very interesting and important scientific event. Scientists believe that in the future they will find many incredible surprises that nature at this day concealed from mankind. To take at leas...
Create a drug that causes dangerous bacteria to destroy their own DNA
the Sustainability of some species of pathogenic bacteria to existing antibiotics every year. Scientists from different countries trying to come up with universal medicine to which the bacteria would not get used so quickly, but s...
Artificial intelligence will be a threat only when stupid use
the technologies are based on continuous improvement over time. As you progress, technology entice and humanity. However, there is a fear that surrounds technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, partly becaus...
The next step in AI is to teach machines to think like us
When you think about the "incredible" task, which can handle a computer, the first thing to come to mind of complex computations in a short time or analysis of massive volumes of data — something you will never be able to solve th...
Chinese surgeons grow girl new face on her breast
We wrote about how Chinese doctors decided , and then sew it into place. People have waited, I understood, after which the doctors decided to move on to more complex operations. From sepsis 27-year-old girl in childhood is almost ...
NASA: Enceladus has all the conditions for the origin of life
Scientists at NASA reported the discovery of new evidence on the icy moon of Saturn, Enceladus conditions to sustain life. In escaping into space from the moon's surface geysers researchers have discovered a molecule of hydrogen. ...
Astronomers photographed a black hole. Possible
This is not a photo of a black hole. This is artistic representation the Project to create a virtual planetary telescope Event Horizon is fully completed and the system has already started to work, providing astronomers with a gia...
Elon Musk is ready to present the plan for the merger of brain and computer
it is known that Elon musk plans to create a company that will deal with the merger of brain and computer (Yes), will be announced on Monday, April 17, in a giant article on the website Wait But Why. Will the presentation Tim urba...
What are the similarities of artificial intelligence and electricity?
What comes to mind when you hear "artificial intelligence"? Educated several generations of Hollywood movies, we often think about "evil robots and intelligent computers that want to destroy humanity". But the AI already plays an ...
Can futurists predict the year of occurrence of the technological singularity?
the end of the known world close. And this is good, as is believed by many futurists, predicting the inevitable onset of technological singularity. What is it? Technological singularity is the idea that technological progress, esp...
Old mice rejuvenated with a new drug
In the life of a cell is something horrible. Like the young heroes of the popular teen novels, the cells are born simply "companies" of the authority is to perform certain roles, predefined expression of their DNA. As the body in ...
Russian scientists were able to speed up and cheapen the process of obtaining gold
Getting from the ore is time – consuming and lengthy process. Today one of the most popular ways of gold recovery is the direct cyanidation using the ability of gold to react with cyanide in the presence of oxygen. There is anothe...
The study of galactic wide web gives the first results
the universe is not only vast expanses of darkness and trillions of galaxies, containing many billions of stars and billions of planets. In fact, it is much more difficult. Each individual galaxy as a single galactic cluster, are ...
#Video | SpaceX posted a panoramic video of the Hyperloop tube
Recently, the company SpaceX launched a competition in which 27 teams have presented their prototypes of capsules for the Hyperloop. The purpose of the event — to spur outside interest in the Hyperloop project, to stimulate ...
From the point of view of science: crying is good?
Until recently, scientists and writers could not agree on the subject of tears. In "Henry VI," Shakespeare wrote that "weeping softens the force of grief", and American author lemony Snicket said that everyone knows that a good, l...
Company Memphis Meats got chicken and ducks in vitro
we All have long been accustomed to the icons on the packaging of the products «GMO», «gluten free», «Organic product» and so on. It is possible that in the future meat products, in addition to the ab...
Astronomers found the planet, contrary to the laws of planetary formation
According to a new study, one giant and distant world that was once described as "the planet that shouldn't be where she is" seems to have really formed, not where one would expect, and not from the outer material, which would hav...
Comments (0)
This article has no comment, be the first!