“NASA Discovers Most Volcanically Active Planet in Solar System: LP 791-18 d”

AMERICA – United States Space Agency (NASA) back to find a new planet that has a volcano. The planet is named LP 791-18 d. According to research NASA can experience volcanic explosions as often as Jupiter’s moons.

NASA calls this new planet the most volcanically active body in the solar system. The location of the planet is located about 90 light years in the crater of the southern constellation.

Astronomers estimate LP 791-18 d to be only slightly larger and more massive than Earth. It is even 20% larger and denser in mass than the two previously discovered planets, namely LP 791-18 b and c.

Besides being large, planet d is also said to be able to change shape every time it circles the star.

This deformation can create enough internal friction to heat the planet’s interior and produce volcanic activity on its surface.

Planet d is on the inner edge of the habitable zone, the traditional range of distances from its star where scientists hypothesize liquid water could exist on the planet’s surface.

If the planet is as geologically active as the research team suspects, it could retain an atmosphere.

“A big question in astrobiology, a field that broadly studies the origins of life on Earth and beyond, is whether tectonic or volcanic activity is necessary for life,” said Jessie Christiansen, a research scientist at NASA’s Exoplanet Science Institute.

“As well as potentially providing an atmosphere, this process could stir up materials that would sink and become trapped in the Earth’s crust, including those we think are essential to life, such as carbon.”

(and)