Researchers from the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics (IAC) have recently revealed that there are two planets, located in a nearby planetary system, with high probabilities of being habitable. They are only 16 light-years from Earth, “close” in astronomical terms.
While this is a short distance for current spatial references, there is no prediction as to when we will be able to make one. travel by then, that’s more than 150 trillion kilometers.
The studies are still very incipient and it is not possible to say, for the moment, whether the planets GJ 1002b and GJ 1002c would be able to host human beings or if they already have some other form of life.
But the scientists came to the conclusion that the two planets are potentially habitable, after verifying that their distance from the main star in their system is similar to the Earth’s distance from the Sun. This zone is known as the ‘habitable zone’.
The two planets orbit GJ 1002, a red dwarf star, a category whose mass varies between 0.1 and 0.7 that of our Sun and also with a lower temperature, between 3,000º C and 4,000º C. now, falls into the category of yellow dwarfs, with a temperature close to 5,500º C.
These factors indicate that the habitability zone of the two discovered planets is located very close to the star, according to one of the IAC researchers, Vera María Passegger. The planet GJ 1002b, for example, takes about ten days to orbit the star, while GJ1002 takes just over 21 days.
Basically, when they use the term “habitable zone”, the researchers mean that due to the conditions – neither too hot nor too cold – there is a great chance of, for example, liquid water, one of the main building blocks for existence of the forms of life we know.
Water, however, is only one factor. There are other issues that need to be evaluated, such as the atmosphere and the existence of gases such as oxygen and hydrogen.
The researchers, who will publish a study on the planets in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, they also found that the masses of these planets are similar to Earth’s. The information comes from the US technology and science website CNET.
“Nature seems intent on showing us that Earth-like planets are very common. With these two, we now know of seven in planetary systems very close to the Sun,” said IAC researcher Alejandro Suárez Mascareño.
It is worth remembering that being in a habitable zone does not necessarily mean that there is life there. Two examples of this are our neighbors Mars and Venus, which occupy this region relative to the Sun, but are unable to open up life as we know it.
Not so far, not so close
Despite the unknowns surrounding these two new planets, the discovery represents a big step towards the future of humanity. The planetary system in question, called GJ, is located about 16 light years from Earth, which makes it our neighbor, obviously from an astronomical point of view.
While this is a short distance by current spatial references, there is no prediction as to when we will be able to travel there: it is more than 150 trillion kilometres.
Traveling is not yet possible, but studying is. Even with current science techniques, researchers can assess the atmospheres of these two exoplanets from a distance — they get their name because they’re located outside our Solar System.
One of the instruments used for this purpose – and which participated in the discovery – is the Espresso. No, it has nothing to do with coffee, but rather with the “affectionate” name given to the Echelle Spectrograph for Rocky Exoplanets and Stable Spectroscopic Observations, a highly sensitive device that measures variations in the light spectrum installed on a structure called Very Large Telescope (VLT). The complex is huge set of optical telescopes, built in the desert of Atacama in a partnership between Chile and the European Southern Observatory (ESO).
Another instrument is Carmenes, which uses a method called Doppler spectroscopy, also known as radial velocity measurement, and is installed in a telescope at the Calar Alto Observatory, located in Andalusia in southern Spain.
