The NASA announced the exciting discovery of an exoplanet the size of Earth or even a little smaller. Gliese 12 bthis intriguing planet, will be studied in detail by the James Webb Space Telescope to determine its atmospheric composition.
This finding is extremely important, since it is the closest and most similar planet to Earth found to date. According to NASA scientists, Gliese 12 b is between the size of Earth and Venus. It orbits its star in just 12.8 days and is only 40 light years away from us.
Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope are expected to determine how much atmosphere it retains and what it is composed of. Assuming it has no atmosphere, the planet has a “surface temperature estimated at around 42 degrees Celsius“, they pointed out from the POT. The importance of this discovery lies in the fact that it is the “closest, transiting, temperate, Earth-sized world located to date.”.
The distance that separates Gliese 12 b from its star is only 7% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun and it receives 1.6 times more energy than our planet. Shishir Dholakia, a doctoral student at the Center for Astrophysics at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia, told the outlet RT that The new planet “represents one of the best targets to study whether Earth-sized planets orbiting cool stars can retain their atmospheres”.
This exciting discovery launched crucial research to understand habitability on other planets in our galaxy. The possibility of finding an exoplanet with characteristics similar to Earth brings us closer and closer to the discovery of extraterrestrial life.
NASA presented its supersonic plane that connects continents in record time
A new milestone in aviation history is yet to come with the X-59, NASA’s revolutionary experimental plane that seeks to unite continents in record time. Imagine flying from New York to Europe in just 90 minutes, reaching speeds 1.4 times faster than sound.
This incredible aircraft, nicknamed the “Son of Concorde”, successfully passed its flight readiness check, a crucial step that brings it closer to its first flight later this year. A group of independent experts carefully evaluated the X-59 design, pointing out potential risks and providing recommendations for optimization. Once these concerns are resolved, we will be ready to witness this supersonic and silent aircraft take to the skies.
The X-59 is the cornerstone of NASA’s ambitious QueSST project, whose main objective is to develop technologies that allow flights at supersonic speeds without generating the deafening roar of sonic booms. This Collaboration between NASA and Lockheed Martin seeks to bring back the era of supersonic commercial travel, more than half a century after the Concorde was banned due to noise annoyances.
Thanks to its innovative design, this aircraft can reach speeds of up to 1,500 kilometers per hour, breaking the sound barrier without generating a deafening noise, but rather a soft sonic “boom.” The data collected during the test flights will be essential for the development of future even quieter and more efficient supersonic aircraft.
The US space agency intends to share the results of the X-59 sonic noise tests with regulatorshoping to pave the way for the reintroduction of commercial supersonic flight over land.
