Potentially habitable Earth-size planet discovered 40 light-years away
A potentially habitable exoplanet that is roughly similar in size to Earth has been found in a system located 40 light-years away, according to a new study.
A potentially habitable exoplanet that is roughly similar in size to Earth has been found in a system located 40 light-years away, according to a new study.
The planet is about the size of Venus, so slightly smaller than Earth, and may be temperate enough to support life, the researchers said.
Dubbed Gliese 12 b, the planet takes 12.8 days to orbit a star that is 27% of the sun’s size. It’s not yet known whether the exoplanet has an atmosphere.
But the scientists behind the study, published Thursday in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, estimated that Gliese 12 b has a surface temperature of about 107 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Celsius). While hot, that temperature is lower than most of the thousands of exoplanets discovered to date.
“Gliese 12 b could be at the right temperature for liquid water to pool on its surface, and that’s important because we tend to think liquid water is an essential ingredient for life as we know it,” Shishir Dholakia, one of the study’s authors and a doctoral student at the University of Southern Queensland’s Centre for Astrophysics, said in a statement.
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