By Vincent Godwin-
A second Earth has been found in the milky way galaxy, The new planet is only 4 lite years away, located in the Proxima Centauri star system in the so-called “Goldilocks zone”
An official statement confirming the existence of this new exoplanet orbiting our next closest star was released yesterday. A statement by NASA read:
“NASA congratulates ESO on the discovery of this intriguing planet that has captured the hopes and the imagination of the world,” says Paul Hertz, Astrophysics Division Director at NASA Headquarters, Washington. “We look forward to learning more about the planet, whether it holds ingredients that could make it suitable for life.”
HABITABLE
For many years scientists have been looking for potentially habitable earth-like planets. Kepler 32 b is one of these recent discoveries, but at 3,000 lite years away it would take an incredible feat of technology and many lifetimes to reach there. At light speed, it would take 3,000 years! 1 light year is the time it takes light to travel through space, 1 light year is equal to a year on Earth. travelling at the speed of light.At our current state of technology, we can only reach One fifth of light speed, which is still quite impressive. We currently don’t have the technology to travel at the speed of light.
EXCITING
The reason that this new roughly Earth-sized planet is such an exciting discovery is that it is literally over the road in space terms, at only 4 lite years away. 4 lite years equates to 37842921890320 kilometers, if we were capable of traveling at the speed of light it would only take 4 years.
SEARCH
The reason that this new planet is such an exciting discovery is that it is literally over the road in space terms at only 4 lite years away.
ESO
The European southern observatory (ESO) , have categorically stated that it will only take 20 years to get a probe there.
“This is really a game-changer in our field,” said Olivier Guyon, a planet-hunting affiliate at NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, and associate professor at the University of Arizona, Tucson.
“The closest star to us has a possible rocky planet in the habitable zone. That’s a huge deal.
It also boosts the already existing, mounting body of evidence that such planets are near, and that several of them are probably sitting quite close to us. This is extremely exciting.”
PLANS
Proxima b
Plans are already in motion to send a probe to this earth like planet named Proxima B. Eso have stated that it will only take 20 years to get a probe there, Proxima B could easily support life and has a very high probability of having water on its surface. Water is the essential ingredient to support life, where there is water there is usually life as long as the temperature is ideal.
The reason for this conclusion is that the planet lies in the habitable zone of its solar system, just like Earth does. This means it is definitely capable of supporting life. This is called “The Goldilocks zone” not too hot and not too cold.
The science team that made the discovery, led by Guillem Anglada-Escudé of the Queen Mary University of London, are due to publish its findings today, Aug. 25 in the journal Nature.
The team traced subtle wobbles in the star revealing, the presence of a star-tugging planet. It orbits its star far more closely than Mercury orbits our sun, taking only 11 days to complete a single orbit – a “year” on Proxima b.
The planet also orbits a red-dwarf star, far smaller and cooler than our sun.
Knowledge about this planet remains very little. Scientists say it might not even have an atmosphere, and it could be bombarded with deadly radiation from its star which would extinguish life on the planet.
“That’s the worry in terms of habitability,” said Scott Gaudi, an astronomy professor at Ohio State University, Columbus, and JPL affiliate is credited with numerous exoplanet discoveries.“This thing is being bombarded by a fair amount of high-energy radiation. It’s not obvious if it’s going to have a magnetic field strong enough to prevent its whole atmosphere from getting blown away. But those are really hard calculations, and I certainly wouldn’t put my money either way on that.”
NASA exoplanet hunters have attributed the discovery as a groundbreaking milestone on the road to finding other possible life-bearing worlds within our stellar neighbourhood.“It definitely gives us something to be excited about,” said Sara Seager, a planetary science and physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and an exoplanet-hunting pioneer. “I think it will definitely motivate people to get moving.”
“Statistical surveys of exoplanets — planets orbiting other stars — by NASA’s Kepler space telescope have revealed a large proportion of small planets around small stars”, she said.
“The Kepler data suggest we should expect at least one potentially habitable, Earth-size planet orbiting M-type stars, like Proxima, within 10 light-years of our solar system.”
“It’s especially encouraging for upcoming space telescopes, which can contribute to the study of the new planet. The James Webb Space Telescope, launching in 2018, may be able to follow-up on this planet with spectroscopy to determine the contents of its atmosphere. NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will find similar planets in the habitable zone in the stellar backyard of our solar system in 2018.”
One of TESS’s goals is to find planets orbiting nearby M-dwarf stars like Proxima Centauri.
“It’s great news just to know that M-dwarf planets could be as common as we think they are,” Seager said.
Bill Borucki, an exoplanet pioneer, also said:
“the new discovery might inspire more interstellar research, especially if Proxima b proves to have an atmosphere.”
“the new discovery might inspire more interstellar research, especially if Proxima b proves to have an atmosphere.”
INTELLIGENT LIFE
PROBE
Given that it would take 20 years to reach the planet, during that time we could most likely beat our own probe there with a much faster one given our increasing rate of technology development.