The discovery of a "giant Earth" suitable for life outside the solar system
The very small movement of a small star revealed the presence of an exoplanet orbiting in close proximity to a habitable place for life, according to a team of astronomers.
And around a faint red dwarf, called Ross 508, located only 36.5 light-years away (but too faint to be seen with the naked eye), astronomers have confirmed the existence of a world 4 times the mass of Earth, and given what we know about the limits of planetary mass, this It means that the world is likely to be terrestrial, or rocky, rather than gaseous.
According to scientists, the exoplanet, called Ross 508 b, is unlikely to be habitable as we know it. However the discovery, the first of its kind in a new survey using the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan's Subaru Telescope (NAOJ) in Hawaii, demonstrates the effectiveness of techniques used to locate minor planets around fainter stars.
The search for habitable exoplanets is somewhat frustrating due to the nature of what we think these exoplanets are like, and the only model we have is Earth, a relatively small planet, orbiting at a distance from its star where temperatures lead to liquid water on its surface, and this is what It is known as the "habitable zone".
However, the techniques that scientists use to search for exoplanets work best on large worlds, such as gas giants, which orbit very close distances and are too hot for liquid water. This does not mean that we cannot find other types of worlds. But it is more difficult, according to the description of scientists.
The Japanese Subaru NAOJ telescope located in Hawaii has discovered an exoplanet orbiting at a safe distance from its star and in a habitable place.
So far, scientists have relied on comparison with Earth to determine habitable planets, as it must be close to the star to allow liquid water, not gas, and must be relatively small, and while this theory also applies to the lifeless planet Mars, but Scientists have not found a more effective model for comparison and research.
So far, scientists have resorted to two methods to detect distant stars. The first method is the transit technique, which is used by the TESS telescope of the US Space Agency (NASA). It searches for regular drops in starlight, which indicates the presence of an object revolving regularly around it.
By calculating the depth of light transit, scientists will be able to determine the mass of an object, which increases its size, the greater the light curve from it, and thus determining its location and size will be easier.
The second method adopted by the Japanese telescope is the radiative velocity technique, and this technique depends on the fact that if any two objects are trapped in an orbit, they do not revolve around one another, but rather revolve around a mutual center of gravity, meaning that the planets’ rotation around the star leads to its oscillation slightly, and this It happens to the sun, too.
Through this technique, scientists succeeded in discovering small exoplanets with wider orbits, and by determining the shifts in wavelengths from blue to red that result from the planets moving towards Earth, they were able to identify the location of those planets and their suitability for life.
Source: websites