They discover a planet similar to Earth that could be habitable

An international investigation discovered a temperate planet, in transit and similar in size to Earth, in an area potentially habitable of his star. It is located in the constellation Pisces and about 40 light years away, according to the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC).

According to the results published in the magazine The Astrophysical Journal Letters the planet was named Gliese 12 b and its discovery was possible thanks to the observations of the Tess satellite, from the POTand facilities such as the Carmenes spectrograph, at the Calar Alto Observatory (Almería), and MuSCAT2, of the Carlos Sánchez telescope, at the Teide Observatory (Tenerife).

Gliese 12 b is located within the habitable zone of its star, a cold red dwarf, making it “a promising candidate” to study its atmosphere with the James Webb Space Telescopeindicates the IAC in a statement.

It is the closest temperate exoplanet, similar in size to Earth, to date detected with the transit method. This is by observing the periodic dimming of its star caused by the planet’s passage.

Likewise, it has a diameter comparable to that of Venusslightly lower than that of the Earth, and its surface temperature is estimated at about 42°C. The final temperature will depend on whether this planet has been able to retain an atmosphere and its composition, from the time it formed to the present.

The exoplanet orbits every 12.8 days its host star, Gliese 12, a cold red dwarf located almost 40 light years away in the constellation Pisces, whose size is 27% that of the Sun and with a surface temperature 60% that of the Sun.

The distance that separates Gliese 12 from the exoplanet is “only” the 7% of the distance between the Earth and the Sunso it receives 1.6 times more energy from its star than our planet.

“Although we still don’t know if Gliese 12 b has an atmosphere, we have been thinking of it as an exo-Venus, with a size and energy received from its star similar to those of our planetary neighbor in the solar system,” he says. Masayuji Kuzuharaassociate professor on the project at the Tokyo Astrobiology Center, who co-leads the research team responsible for the results.

Gliese 12 b represents “one of the best targets to study whether Earth-sized planets orbiting cool stars can retain their atmospheres, a crucial step toward advance our understanding of habitability on planets across our galaxy“says Shishir Dholakia, an astrophysicist at the University of Southern Queensland (Australia).

Shishir Dholakia is principal investigator of another team that has published its results in parallel and independently in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

It is a “unique candidate for new atmospheric studies that could help unravel some aspects of the evolution of our own solar system,” explains Enric Pallé, an IAC researcher who also participated in the discovery.

Although Earth and Venus are very similar planets in size and mass, their stories were very different, remember: Earth is still habitable, but Venus is not It is due to its total loss of water.

The atmosphere of Gliese 12 b could teach a lot about how the atmospheric evolution and habitability conditions of terrestrial planets change as they evolve, adds Pallé.

An important factor in retaining an atmosphere is the stormy nature of its star, the statement indicates, in which they also point out that red dwarfs tend to be magnetically active, which gives rise to frequent and powerful bursts of x-rays and ultraviolet radiation.

However, the analyzes of both teams conclude that Gliese 12 b shows no signs of extreme behaviormaking this system an ideal candidate for studying its atmosphere with the James Webb Space Telescope.

The researchers point out that, thanks to current technology, the transit method can be used to analyze the chemical composition of exoplanetary atmospheres.

By studying the unique pattern of chemical fingerprints generated when starlight passes through the planet’s gaseous shell, the molecules present can be identified and their composition better understood.

To date, only a “handful of transitable planets are known that are close enough to Earth and that meet the necessary criteria for this type of study.”

And they conclude that “Gliese 12 b is an exceptional candidate that will help us better understand the diversity of atmospheres around temperate Earth-like planets.”