Astronomers Found Planet That Could Suit Human Life

look at this fascinating planet it looks as if it's burning it must be hotter on its surface than in the middle of Death Valley the ground is parched cut by giant cracks there's not a drop of water in this boiling world now it's the same planet but it looks like a totally different place everything is frozen the temperatures are so low there isn't even a tiniest chance that life could survive on this planet this bizarre world is called HD20794D and it's located 19.7 light years away from Earth in the constellation Ardinous this planet is a super Earth this term means that it is larger than Earth but smaller than such ice giants as Neptune what makes this planet especially interesting is its unusual orbit which moves it in and out of its stars habitable zone the region where temperatures might allow liquid water to exist now we haven't seen this unusual planet directly astronomers detected it by measuring tiny wobbles in its star using two powerful instruments Espresso and HARPS located at telescopes in Chile these instruments measure radial velocity which is the small movement a star makes as a planet's gravity tugs on it the larger the wobble the more massive the planet later astronomers analyzed the data and figured out that the planet in question has a mass around six times greater than Earth's it orbits a star which is slightly smaller and dimmer than our sun what makes this star unique is that it is bright enough to be seen with the unaded eye unlike many other stars that host exoplanets you won't be able to see them without a telescope the star system has been observed for over 20 years astronomers have long suspected it had multiple planets in 2011 scientists discovered two other super Earths orbiting the star every 18.3 and 89.6 6 days respectively for some time researchers thought they had found a third planet with an orbital period of 40 days later they realized they had made a mistake but recently after reanalyzing years of data astronomers have confirmed that the third planet does exist and it's our extreme HD20794D a researcher from the University of Oxford played a key role in identifying the planet he used a special computer algorithm called Yurara to separate the planet's weak signal from the background noise it helped him confirm that the planet truly existed and was pretty unique unlike the planets in our solar system which have mostly circular orbits the newly discovered one follows a highly elliptical stretched out orbit it takes 647 days to complete one trip around its star that's just 40 days shorter than Mars' orbit around the sun at its furthest point the planet is twice the Earth's sun distance which makes it an icy world far outside the habitable zone at its closest point it moves inward to 75 AU where it enters the habitable zone where liquid water might exist this extreme movement creates truly bizarre seasons for some part of its orbit HD20794D is frozen like an icy wasteland as it approaches its star temperatures rise and ice likely melts forming temporary oceans the planet then experiences a short scorching summer it is so hot that the water on its surface might evaporate into the atmosphere shortly after the planet moves away again it triggers a gloomy fall with rains followed by a deep freeze in winter in other words the planet switches between extreme cold and intense heat which makes it a very unpredictable place for life if any life forms exist there they certainly need to adapt to dramatic changes in temperature and environment why does the planet follow such a mind-boggling orbit it might be a leftover effect from events billions of years ago when the planetary system was still forming at some point another large planet may have disturbed the orbit of our extraordinary friend another possible explanation is that a giant planet once existed in the system and its gravity pushed HD20794D into an elongated path later this giant planet may have been ejected from the system leaving the smaller planet in its current orbit this theory makes sense because the two other planets in the system B and C have more normal circular orbits the discovery of this planet is so exciting because it challenges what we know about habitable planets most planets in the habitable zone stay there permanently but HD20794D only passes through it scientists want to know if such a planet could still support life even briefly so future telescopes will study the atmosphere of this planet looking for signs of water gases or even light another super Earth that might have the right conditions for life orbits a star 137 light-years away in space terms this is considered relatively close a lightyear is around 6 trillion miles the planet is called TOI715b and it's about 1.5 times the size of Earth unlike HD20794D it's permanently located in the habitable zone look that's what astronomers think the planet might look like toi715b orbits its star very quickly completing a full orbit in just 19 days but even though it's close to its star it may not be extremely hot all because its star is a red dwarf that's a type of star that is smaller and cooler than our sun this means TOI715b could have a milder temperature compared to other exoplanets that orbit closer to hotter stars nasa discovered the planet using the transiting exoplanet survey satellite this space telescope finds planets by watching for small dips in a stars brightness which happen when a planet passes in front of it since red dwarfs are smaller and dimmer than the sun planets passing in front of them are easier to detect astronomers are planning to study the planet further using the James Webb Space Telescope this powerful telescope located 1 million miles away from Earth can analyze the atmospheres of distant planets if TOI715b has an atmosphere JWST could help scientists determine what gases are present in it and whether such conditions could support liquid water or even life one more promising world for our search for extraterrestrial life is an extremely dense super Earth in the K2360 system an international team of researchers from Japan and Europe has discovered this remarkable multilanet system orbiting a sun-like star located 750 light-years away this system has two planets including one of the densest rocky planets ever found the K2360b is a rocky super Earth about 1.6 times the size of Earth but with a mass 7.7 times greater this makes it as dense as lead the planet orbits its star incredibly fast completing one full orbit in just 21 hours it's the densest known ultrashort period planet with well-measured properties as for its sibling this is a much larger outer planet with at least 15 Earth masses it takes 9.8 days to orbit its star sadly since it does not pass in front of its star from our viewpoint scientists cannot determine its exact size the unusually dense planet might be the core of a much larger planet over time intense radiation from its parent star may have blown away its outer layers leaving behind only its dense rocky core so in fact this planet could show us what might happen to some planets that are too close to their stars astronomers think that the planet may have moved inward over time due to interactions with its larger companion planet one possibility is high eentricity migration where a planet's orbit becomes highly stretched out due to gravitational interactions before gradually becoming more circular near the star another theory is that the planet's spin and axial tilt can cause its orbit to become more circular such planets are rare and finding one with a massive outer companion can help scientists refine their theories about how planets form and evolve in extreme environments with its help we might also understand how rocky planets evolve and what happens to planets that get too close to their stars