2024-02-17 06:45:42
A rocky planet, like Earth, has been discovered, located at the ideal distance from its star to allow a range of temperatures compatible with the existence of seas and other bodies of liquid water on its surface. A scenario of this type meets many of the conditions suitable for the existence of life.
The discovery is the work of an international team of scientists led by Georgina Dransfield of the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. The main observations were made with NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) astronomical satellite. Complementary observations have been carried out through the Gemini South astronomical observatory, the Las Cumbres observatory, the TRAPPIST South, the ExTrA telescopes and the SPECULOOS network.
The planet is called TOI-715 b, is about 50 percent larger than Earth and orbits a red dwarf star.
With its discovery, TOI-175 b joins the list of planets located in the habitable zone around its star that can be observed in more detail by the Webb space telescope.
The habitable zone around a star is one in which the prevailing heat is neither excessive nor insufficient to allow the existence of liquid water on the surface of a planet suitable for it.
Judging by some indications, a second planet could exist in that same solar system, smaller than the one now discovered but a little larger than Earth. This second planet could also be at an ideal distance from its star to allow the existence of liquid water on its surface.
For a planet orbiting a red dwarf to enjoy a temperature range similar to that of the Earth on its surface, it must be much closer to its star than the Earth is to the Sun, because red dwarfs emit less. heat.
The shorter a planet’s orbit around its star, the more often it will make a complete orbit around it. If the planet’s orbit causes it to pass in front of the star from Earth’s visual perspective, it will be much easier to detect it when such passes in front of the star occur often than when a lot of time elapses between them.
In the case of the planet TOI-175 b, it passes in front of its star once every 19 days. This made its detection much easier and has allowed it to be observed in front of its star frequently enough.
Observing a planet the size of the Earth pass in front of its star, being similar to the Sun and taking the planet 365 days to make a complete revolution around the star, is beyond the capacity of existing space telescopes.
Source: NCYT from Amazings