WASHINGTON – Astronomers have been searching for years for rocky planets outside our solar system that have atmospheres thought to be necessary for the possibility of any life. Looks like they’ve finally found one. However, it has a molten rock surface – not suitable for habitation.
On Wednesday, the planet became a “Super-Earth” – a rocky world larger than our planet but smaller than Neptune – orbiting dangerously close to a star that is smaller and slightly smaller than the we have sun Once or twice.
Infrared observations using two instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope indicate the existence of a large, inhospitable atmosphere, possibly constantly replenished by gases coming from a vast magma ocean.
“The atmosphere is mainly carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide, but there may be other gases such as water vapor and sulfur dioxide,” said Renyu Hu, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology. “Current observations do not reflect the exact composition of the atmosphere. “. , lead author of the study published in the journal Nature.
The web data also does not show the thickness of the atmosphere. It could be as thick as Earth or even thicker than Venus, which has the thickest toxic atmosphere in our solar system.
The planet, called 55 Cancri e or Janssen, is about 8.8 times the size of Earth and twice the diameter of our planet. It orbits its star at about 25 times the distance between our solar system’s innermost planet, Mercury, and the Sun. As a result, its surface temperature is about 3140 degrees Fahrenheit.
“Obviously, this is one of the hottest rocky planets,” said study co-author Bryce Oliver Demory, an astronomer at the Center for Space and Life at the University of Bern in Switzerland, using the term for exoplanets. outside our solar system. “There are better places to vacation in our galaxy.”
The planet appears to be tidally locked, meaning that it always faces its star in the same direction as the Moon towards Earth. The planet is located 41 light-years from Earth in our Milky Way Galaxy, in the constellation Cancer. A light year is the distance that light travels in one year, which is 5.9 trillion miles. Four other planets, all gas giants, are known to orbit their host star.
This star is closely related to another star in a binary system. The other is a red dwarf, a much smaller type of star. The distance between these partners is 1,000 times greater than the distance between the Earth and the Sun, and it takes six days for light to travel from one to the other.
Our galaxy may have better vacation spots.
– Brice Olivier Demaury, University of Bern
After all the research, it turns out that the rocky exoplanet on which scientists finally found evidence of an atmosphere may not be. Because it is so close to its star, any atmosphere must be stripped away by radiation and winds. But he said that gases dissolved in the vast volcanic ocean, which is thought to cover the planet, may have risen to fill the atmosphere.
“It is not possible to live on this planet, because it is too hot to have liquid water, which is a basic condition for life,” said Hu.
All previous exoplanets were gas planets with atmospheres, not rocks. The discovery of a sentient rock represents progress as the Internet pushes the boundaries of exoplanet research.
On Earth, the atmosphere warms the planet, includes the oxygen that people breathe, protects from solar radiation, and creates the pressure necessary to produce water. keep liquid on the surface of the planet.
“On Earth, the atmosphere is important for life,” Temori said. “This result for 55 Cnc e gives us hope that similar studies can be carried out on planets cooler than 55 Cnc e, which could support the presence of liquid water on their surfaces. But we haven’t reached that point yet.”
