Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Astronomers working on NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite recently discovered several planets orbiting their parent star’s habitable zone. This discovery comes after astronauts regularly search for planets orbiting outside the solar system or exoplanets.
Reported by space.com, one of the 30% larger exoplanets of the Earth and orbiting in less than three days. Additionally, there are also exoplanets that are 70% larger than Earth and can host deep oceans.
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“These two exoplanets are super-Earths or larger than Earth but smaller than ice giants like Uranus and Neptune,” he writes. space.comquoted Saturday (8/10/2022).
Scientists claim that most super-Earths orbit cold dwarfs, which have less mass and survive the sun.
There are hundreds of dwarf stars for each star like the Sun and scientists have found that super-Earths orbit around 40% of these dwarfs.
“Using that number, astronomers estimate that there are tens of billions of super-Earths in the habitable zone where liquid water could exist in the Milky Way alone. Since all life on Earth uses water, water is considered to be essential for habitability, “he writes space.com.
According to current projections, about a third of all exoplanets are super-Earths, making them the most common type of exoplanet in the Milky Way. The closest super-Earth is only 6 light years from Earth.
Another reason super-Earths are ideal targets in the search for life is that they are easier to detect and study than Earth-sized planets.
Furthermore, astronomers use two methods to detect exoplanets. The first is to look for the effect of the planet’s gravity on its parent star. The second is to look for a brief dimming of the star’s light as the planet passes in front of it.
The researchers listed the attributes that make the planet so conducive to life. Larger planets tend to be geologically active, a feature scientists believe will guide biological evolution.
“So the most habitable planet would have about twice the mass of the Earth and a volume between 20% and 30% larger,” he wrote.
That volume would also have the ocean low enough for light to stimulate life to reach the ocean floor with an average temperature of 77 degrees Fahrenheit (25 degrees Celsius). Additionally, the planet will have a denser atmosphere than Earth which will act as an insulating blanket.
Therefore, the planet will orbit a star older than the Sun to provide a longer life and has a magnetic field capable of protecting it from cosmic radiation. According to scientists, the combination of these attributes would make the planet very habitable.
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