A new exoplanet almost the same size as Earth has been discovered 31 light-years away. So far, few exoplanets of a similar size to Earth have been discovered, and the possibility of extraterrestrial life on the new planet has been raised, drawing attention from the academic community.
The Max Planck Institute in Germany introduced ‘Wolf 1069b’, an exoplanet similar to Earth in many ways, on its official website on the 3rd.
‘Wolf 1069b’ is one of about 5,000 known exoplanets to date. In particular, it is a rocky planet similar in size to Earth, and the fact that only about 10 such exoplanets have been discovered so far is meaningful, the institute explains.
This exoplanet orbits the red dwarf star Wolf 1069, about 31 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. In the process of analyzing the shaking of the celestial body, the institute determined that the size is almost the same as the Earth. Due to its short distance from the main star ‘Wolf 1069’, its orbital period is 15.6 days. Compared to Earth orbiting the sun, it is much shorter.
The research institute predicted that there is a possibility that life could live on ‘Wolf 1069b’, but the environment is not as good as Earth. The research institute speculates that the light received from the main planet is 65% of the amount that the earth receives from the sun, so the temperature of the surface is quite low.
An official of the investigation said, “If ‘Wolf 1069b’ is a rocky planet without an atmosphere, the surface temperature will be minus 22 ℃, and if it has an atmosphere like Earth, it will be about 12 ℃.” is difficult to anticipate,” he said.
“If ‘Wolf 1069b’ has an atmosphere, it can protect the surface from the intense radiation emitted by the main star,” he said. It should be pretty close to the main castle,” he added.
The institute believes that ‘Wolf 1069b’ is more likely to have no atmosphere, and that it could be exposed to powerful stellar winds, making it difficult for life to survive. Moreover, since it is tidally fixed to the star and the same side faces the main star, it was tentatively concluded that even if there were living things, they would exist only in front of the light.
“Nevertheless, ‘Wolf 1069b’ is one of the few terrestrial planets outside the solar system,” said an official of the investigation.
Reporter Jeong Ian anglee@sputnik.kr
