A planet that could harbor alien life was observed by a team of astronomers from the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Science (IA) who used the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) in Chile.
According to María Rosa Zapatero Osorio, astronomer at the Center for Astrobiology in Madrid, Spain, and one of the authors of the study “Hot terrestrial planet with half the mass of Venus transiting a nearby star” published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, the “planet it might have an atmosphere that could protect and sustain life.”
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The distance of planetary system L 98-59 is 35 light years from Earth. The study points out that one of the three planets orbiting the star L 98-59 may have up to a third of its mass in water. The other two are rocky and dry, and may have a small amount of water.
Check out the planet in ESO’s animation:
Osorio explains that astronomers used the Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanets and Stable Spectroscopic Observations (ESPRESSO) instrument to study the L 98-59 planetary system: “Without the accuracy and stability of the ESPRESSO this measurement would not have been possible. This is a step forward in our ability to measure the masses of the smallest planets beyond the Solar System.”
The team also found “hidden” exoplanets that had not previously been seen in this planetary system: a fourth and possibly a fifth. The distance of these other two planets from the star L 98-59 may indicate the existence of liquid water on their surfaces.
“We have evidence of the presence of a terrestrial planet in the habitable zone of this system. If we want to know what a planet is made of, the least we need is its mass and radius”, says Olivier Demangeon, researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences at the University of Porto, in Portugal, and main author of the new study .
“This system announces what is to come. We as a society have been chasing terrestrial planets since the birth of astronomy and now we are finally getting closer and closer to detecting a terrestrial planet in the habitable zone of its star, from which we could study the atmosphere,” he celebrated.
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