This time all the signs say it is true. There is a planet outside our solar system that has the necessary conditions for life, or as close as possible as we know it
This is the planet called Next b orbiting the nearby star Centauri.
Unlike the Alpha Centauri b, discovered in 2012 as similar to Earth but planet whose existence was challenged in 2015, the “signs of life” of this planet are more accurate.
scientists at the Southern Space Observatory (ESO, its acronym in English) just shared this Wednesday some keys to this earthly cousin not so distant from our neighborhood.
1. It exists and is the closest
Next b is about 4 light years from the solar system, which is one of the relatively closest distance to Earth similar to our planet never before detected.
“the first signs of a possible planet were in 2013, but the detection was not convincing,” says Guillem Anglada-Escudé, the Spanish scientist who led the research.
to confirm its existence, scientists reviewed for 60 days HARPS spectrograph signals located in Chile, along with other telescopes around the world.
2. Suitable temperature
This new planet is 7 million kilometers from its star, Proxima Centauri.
That means it is 5% of the distance distance Earth to the Sun (149.6 million kilometers), how can it be living then?
“Your star is much fainter than the sun. As a result, Next b is within the habitable zone around the star and has an estimated surface temperature would allow the presence of liquid water, “explains ESO.
calculations indicate that it could have a temperature of about 4 ° C, creating conditions to have water, the key factor of terrestrial life.
3. Their conditions
The mass of this planet is 1.3 times that of Earth and until now scientists believe it may have a rocky landscape, habitable for humans.
it is too early to reach conclusions, but the scientific debate focuses on whether the atmosphere is evaporating slowly, as with similar planets and what kind of chemical possesses.
the surface could be you receive “flares X-ray and ultraviolet radiation” from his star would be much stronger than we have on Earth, a factor for life as we know it.
4. Two-sided
It is still early to confirm, but astronomers considered “very likely” that the force of gravity influences the planet makes one side is exposed to light and other remains dark .
the patterns that astronomers have detected lead them to conclude that this planet revolves around Proxima Centauri every 11.2 earth days.
5. Near and far
The idea of an Earth-like planet in a nearby neighborhood sounds good, but astronomical distances are considerable.
Proxima Centauri is 40 billion kilometers, a distance that would require thousands of years to be achieved with the technology we have.
the Juno mission, which traveled 3,000 million kilometers to reach Jupiter in July, took five years to reach its target in a stroke calculated to intercept the planet.
“of course, go there right now is science fiction, but people are thinking about it and is no longer just an academic exercise to imagine that we could send a probe there one day, “said Anglada Escudé.
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