Jakarta –
Astronomers track where two near-Earth planets are located. These two planets reportedly have the possibility of being habitable.
Quoting from detikInet, these two planets have a resemblance to earth. It is 16 light-years away (an astronomical unit of length) and has a mass similar to that of Earth.
The planet’s location is in the habitat zone of a star called GJ 1002. Astronomers say the planet is neither too hot nor too cold. Indeed, there is water in liquid form.
“Nature seems to show us that planets like Earth are very common,” said Alejandro Suárez Mascareno of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) who studied it, as quoted by detikINET from Live Science.
The existence of water in liquid form is important to continue studying. The planet is indeed in the habitable zone, but that’s not an absolute guarantee that a planet will support life.
For example, in our Solar System, the planets Venus and Mars are in the Sun’s habitable zone, but neither can currently support life. It is being investigated whether there are living things on Mars, but even if there are, it’s possible they’re just bacteria.
Because GJ 1002 is a relatively cool red dwarf, its habitable zone is much closer to it than Earth is to the sun. The planet GJ 1002b takes only about 10 days to orbit while the outermost planet, GJ 1002c, completes one orbit in 21 days.
The proximity of the two planets to Earth allows them to become interesting research objects for scientists, like their atmospheric conditions.
This article was published on detikInet, read in full here.
(court/mso)
