NASA discovers a possibly habitable ‘super-Earth’ | Top Vip News

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By Alyssa Guzman

Far!

NASA has discovered a “super Earth” that may be habitable and is “only” 137 light years away.

“By astronomical standards, that’s not so bad!” the agency insisted on X on the planet called TOI-715 b.

The planet is about one and a half times larger than Earth and completes a full orbit (or “a year”) in just 19 days. NASA revealed.

What’s more promising is that the space rock has a “conservative” habitable zone around its parent star, meaning it can form liquid water on its surface, which would be vital for supporting life forms.

A second, smaller planet could be nearby and measure just a little larger than Earth and could also live within the “conservative” habitable zone, NASA reported, saying the planet “could be making an appearance at just the right time.”

TOI-715 b surrounds a red dwarf, which is smaller and cooler than the sun. They are known to be the “best bet for finding habitable planets,” NASA said.

“These planets have much closer orbits than those surrounding stars like our Sun, but because red dwarfs are smaller and cooler, the planets can be clustered closer together and still be safely within the star’s habitable zone.” , the agency added.

Narrower orbits (in this case, 19 days) allow scientists to observe the planet more frequently.

One side of the planet always faces its star, meaning that temperature differences can differ greatly.

Planet TOI-175 b joins the list of possibly habitable planets that the Webb telescope can examine for signs of an atmosphere, the space company said.

Exoplanets are worlds located outside our solar system and have been studied by the James Webb Space Telescope since 2018.

“Much will depend on other properties of the planet, including its mass and whether it can be classified as a “water world,” making its atmosphere, if present, more prominent and much less difficult to detect than that of a more massive planet. . “It is a denser, drier world, which will likely keep its lower-profile atmosphere closer to the surface,” NASA said.

The planet was discovered by a team of international scientists led by Georgina Dransfield of the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom last month.