The newfound exoplanets, known as HD 7924c and HD 7924d, are 'super Earths' with masses about 7.9 and 6.4 times greater, respectively, than that of our home planet, researchers said.The planets.
We Earthlings are a really lucky bunch. Our planet is located in just the right spot in our Solar System.
We’re not too close to the Sun, like Mercury or Venus, where the average temperature can reach more than 400°C. It’s not too far away, either, like Jupiter or Saturn, where it can get really cold—way under 140°C.But our planet is not the only one with such ideal conditions. A bunch of other planets and moons are also found in the so-called habitable zone or Goldilocks zone. Planets or moons located in the Goldilocks zone are at the right distance from their star so that they’re not too hot and not too cold—just like Baby Bear’s porridge in the fairy tale. Their overall temperature is just right for the formation of liquid water, a landmark of life.Of course, Mars, for example, is found within the habitable zone of our system, and we have yet to find the first Martians.Also, being in the habitable zone doesn’t mean they actually have water, but they could. These potentially habitable planets need to meet to be able to host some sort of life, like having an atmosphere, being a rocky planet (and not one made up of gas) and having the right mix of chemical compounds needed by living organisms. Is there life out there?This question has been in the mind of people for aeons, and maybe now we are finally close to getting an answer.
Several celestial bodies, either planets or their moons, have been identified as potential candidates to host life.Some are planets around the same size of Earth, orbiting a star much like our own Sun. Others are called and are as large as 45 times the size of Earth.In the search for life on other planets, the most famous candidate, arguably, is Mars, which made some big news recently when it was confirmed it hosts a vast amount of water just beneath its surface. The finding, according to experts, means that Mars could one day allow for the establishment of a human colony and perhaps even allow some other lifeforms to exist.“Certainly on Earth, we find life associated with big ice sheets. So it doesn’t actually have to be liquid water in which life can exist, and it would be very interesting to look at where these ice scarps are melting,” Simon George, at Macquarie University, said.“The melting ice could potentially expose new bits of ice and possibly be a very interesting place to look for new evidence of life, either in the recent geological past or even living today on Mars,” George added in a recent. Beyond Mars, another place where scientists are pouring their hopes are the moons from a big planet.
Life on a moonSaturn, one of the largest planets of our solar system, has 62 moons, some of which are tiny just 1km in diameter. Others are larger than some planets, like the moon Titan, nearly half the size of Earth.One of Saturn’s moons has been the focus of attention among extraterrestrial life hunters: Enceladus.
Here, scientists have discovered, buried 30 to 40 kilometres beneath the moon’s surface, which is covered in ice and snow and where temperatures reach -198°C, at noon! Revealed the existence of all the vital ingredients for life in these oceans: carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen.“I think this is it. From an astrobiology point of view, this is the most interesting story,” said Chris McKay, a planetary scientist at NASA.Saturn is not the only planet with a moon that potentially hosts life. Jupiter’s moon Europa has been a target for exploration since the 1960s. Made famous by the book (and movie) 2001: A Space Odyssey, Europa has an ocean of liquid water lurking beneath a layer of ice 15 to 20 kilometres deep.
At least two future NASA projects plan to explore this moon in more detail.and, both planned to launch some time in 2020, will make detailed studies of the surface of Jupiter and three of its moons, Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. Life beyond our Solar SystemOther stellar systems that host potentially habitable planets have been identified in the past years.Just last year, reported the existence of a possible super-Earth planet, about 41 light years away from Earth. Life as we know itBut how do you really know if a planet can host some form of life?
Until you actually find some alien life form, it is all really theoretical. But now, a new study just published found solid evidence that one species of microorganism could survive in Saturn’s moon Enceladus.The compounds found in Enceladus, such as methane, carbon dioxide, ammonia and hydrogen, can be either produced or used for growth by microorganisms., researchers managed to grow microorganisms under the gas and pressure conditions thought to be present in Enceladus. Researchers found one survivor: a microorganism capable, in theory, of surviving in Enceladus, even under the presence of nasty compounds that would inhibit the growth of other life.“The microorganism Methanothermococcus okinawensis thrives and produces methane under conditions similar to those found in Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus,” says Simon Rittmann, at the University of Vienna, who led the new study.Furthermore, researchers identified a geological process known as, which might produce enough hydrogen for the survival of some kind of lifeform on Enceladus. The findings support the idea that certain microorganisms can thrive in Enceladus and be responsible for some of the methane detected in this moon.But will we ever find some sort of intelligent life?
Some scientists think so, and the reason is simple: odds are on our side, sort of.It is a big, big universe with trillions of planets and stars, and we already know many moons and planets very like Earth have the right conditions for life as we know it. So why not?“In the search for life in the Solar System and beyond, the physiological capabilities of several organisms found on Earth that live or survive under extreme environmental conditions make it likely that, somewhere in the universe, alien life could exist. It could be possible that we might find life just a doorstep away,” says Simon. Republishing our contentWe want our stories to be shared and seen by as many people as possible.Therefore, unless it says otherwise, copyright on the stories on Particle belongs to Scitech and they are published under a.This allows you to republish our articles online or in print for free. You just need to credit us and link to us, and you can’t edit our material or sell it separately.Using the ‘republish’ button on our website is the easiest way to meet our guidelines.
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Astronomers discover seven Earth-sized planets
Three of the planets are located within the habitable zone
Talk about lucky number seven. Astronomers have discovered not one, not two, but seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a star called TRAPPIST-1.
What’s more, three of them are in the habitable zone— the happy place where liquid water can exist on the surface of rocky planets, as it’s not too hot or cold. (Although liquid water could potentially exist on any of the seven, NASA said, it likes the odds on those three best.) The space agency calls the discovery of the fascinating solar system record-breaking.
“The discovery gives us a hint that finding a second Earth is not just a matter of if, but when,” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, said at a news conference announcing the discovery.
Zurbuchen called it a 'major step forward' towards the goal of answering the very big question: Is there life on other worlds?
The discovery 'is very promising for the search for life beyond our solar system,” Michael Gillon, astronomer at the University of Liege in Belgium, added during the press conference.
This is the first time astronomers have found so many Earth-sized planets circling the same sun.
Since the seven planets orbit the star-- which is roughly 40 light years away-- fairly close to each other, the view from one planet would reveal other planets to look as big, if not bigger, than the way we see the moon from Earth.
“If you were on the surface of one of these planets, you would have a wonderful view [of] the other planets,” Gillon said, adding that they would be much more than just 'dots of light' in the sky, as we see other planets, like Venus, from our home planet.
(NASA)
The three planets in the habitable zone, also known as the Goldilocks Zone, are called TRAPPIST-1e, f, and g. Exoplanet “e” is about the same size as Earth and even gets around the same amount of star light as we do.
Scientists already knew of thousands of planets beyond our own solar system.
All told, the tally of confirmed exoplanets stood at 3,449 on Wednesday. But only a small number of discovered exoplanets meet the criteria for being possible Earths-- Earth-sized planets that are not too big, and in the habitable zone of a star.
While this discovery was made using the Spitzer Space Telescope, one of the most important instruments in the search for other planets is the Kepler Space Telescope, which is credited with 2,331 confirmed exoplanet discoveries. It uses a technique called the transit method, watching for a star to dim when a planet passes in front of the distant sun. About 74 percent of known exoplanets have been discovered using that method, according to NASA.
Exoplanet discoveries just keep coming.
Earlier this month, astronomers announced that they had evidence of perhaps as many as 114 new exoplanets; the data they used to find those came from Hawaii’s Keck Observatory, which made observations of over 1,600 stars for over two decades. One of those newly-discovered planets that has garnered attention is a hot, rocky “super Earth” called Gliese 411b.
Scientists have even discovered a planet orbiting the closest star to Earth, aside from the sun. Called Proxima b, that planet is somewhat larger than our own planet and lies about four light years away— close by cosmic standards but still incredibly far away from a human perspective. (One light year— the distance light can travel in one Earth year— equals almost 6 trillion miles.) The important Proxima b discovery was announced last August.
Follow Rob Verger on Twitter: @robverger