Astronomers discover Earth-like planet just 11 light years away
Named Ross 128 b, it is the second closest exoplanet of its kind to Earth and may have conditions necessary to support life.
Astronomers have discovered a potentially habitable planet just 11 light years away, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.
Named Ross 128 b, the planet is the second closest exoplanet of its kind to Earth. The closest one – known as Proxima b – orbits the Proxima Centauri star. Proxima b is not likely to be hospitable for life as it is exposed to harmful radiation from time to time. Ross 128 b also orbits a similar star, but one that is significantly less active.
The planet is similar to Earth and orbits its parent star once every 9.9 days. Astronomers from Europe and South America, who found Ross, said its surface temperature is somewhere between –60°C and 20°C. This, they said, makes it possible for the planet to support life.
“But we still need to know what the atmosphere of Ross 128 b is like,” Nicola Astudillo-Defru from the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland told the BBC. “Depending on its composition and the reflectivity of its clouds, the exoplanet may be life-friendly with liquid water as the Earth or sterile like Venus.”
The scientists used the European Southern Observatory’s planet-hunting instrument Harps, which identifies planets by looking at how their gravity forces their parent stars to wobble.