The closest exoplanet to Earth has been found by scientists. It is located 39 light years from Earth. Its deserts would probably be more inhospitable that the deserts at Tatooine, and its polar opposite to frigid Hoth. An exoplanet, a planet orbiting a star outside of our Solar System is called a “planet”. This exoplanet is actually located in a nearby galaxy. However, a group of astrophysicists at MIT and other centers published their findings in Nature. Zachory Berta Thompson, a postdoc at MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research and co-authors from Brazil, France, Portugal and Belgium, believes the planet is far too hot for humans. The surface temperature of this planet will likely be a hyper-sizzling degC. GJ 1132b appears to be tidally locked. It has a constant night and day side with its star facing it all the time. This is similar to how our Moon locks to Earth. A planet passing directly in front of one star was likely to be the 0.3% dimming starlight. Image: MIT. The planet’s scorching temperature makes it impossible for it to hold liquid water, making it inhospitable for life. The authors do believe that it has a sufficient temperature to sustain a significant atmosphere. Researchers will soon learn more about the planet’s characteristics due to its proximity to Earth. This includes its atmosphere, wind patterns, and colors of sunsets. May have a substantial atmosphere Dr. Berta-Thompson said: “If we find this pretty hot planet has managed to hang onto its atmosphere over the billions of years it’s been around, that bodes well for the long-term goal of studying cooler planets that could have life.” “We finally have a target to point our telescopes at, and [can] dig much deeper into the workings of a rocky exoplanet, and what makes it tick.” The astrophysicists discovered the exoplanet using the MEarth-South Observatory, an array of eight 40-centimeter-wide robotic telescopes located in the Andean mountain range in Chile. Harvard University’s array is used to monitor M dwarfs, which can be seen throughout the night sky. Although scientists believe M dwarfs can be orbited frequently by planets (although no Earth-sized exoplanet has been found, it is believed that they are often orbited regularly by other planets. The telescope array began collecting data almost every night last year. It has taken measurements of starlight in the sky each minute to search for the star dimming sign that could indicate that a satellite is orbiting a star. One telescope detects a small dip in starlight intensity on 10th Mai. This was located 39 parsecs away from Earth. Zachory K. Berta–Thompson, Torres Fellow for Exoplanetary Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Kavli Institute for Astrophysics & Space Research is Zachory K. Berta–Thompson. (Image: space.mit.edu) Dr. Berta-Thompson said: “Our galaxy spans about 100,000 light-years. This is a close solar neighborhood star,” the robotic telescope began to observe GJ 1132 each 45 second in order to verify the 0.3% starlight dimming. The star was then pointed at by other telescopes from Chile. They found 0.3% dimming every 1.6 days, which suggests that there is a planet passing in front. Dr. Berta-Thompson stated that they didn’t know how long the planet had been in front of it. However, when the scientists phased several of these telescopes together, we were able to determine its size, mass and density. The researchers calculated the Earth’s GJ 1132b size based on the amount of star light the planet blocks. Its mass was determined by the wobble of its star host. The exoplanet’s surface is similar to Earth, and they believe it to be rocky. But that’s where similarities stop – the planet’s surface is extremely hot. Dr. Berta Thompson explained that the surface temperature is as high as an oven, making it hotter than a burnt cookie. The surface is too hot for it to be habitable. There’s no liquid water. However, it’s cooler than any other known rocky planets.” This planet is nevertheless interesting to explore. The majority of other discovered rocky planets are fireballs with a surface temperature that exceeds several thousand degrees. This makes them far too hot to support any type of atmosphere. However, Planet GJ 1132b is sufficiently cool to sustain a rich atmosphere. Dr. Berta Thompson stated that the planet was cool enough to retain an atmosphere. We believe this planet still contains some form of an atmosphere in its current condition.” Researchers hope to be able use the James Webb Space Telescope, which will replace the Hubble Space Telescope and is due to launch in 2018.. They will then be able determine the colour and chemical composition of the atmosphere as well as the wind patterns. Dr. Berta Thompson stated that this is the first time they have had the opportunity to look at a rock exoplanet with our telescopes and see the details. They will be able measure its speed and sunsets, as well as learn about the workings of rocky planets out there. These will be fascinating observations.” The TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), will locate planets around these star systems. These planets can be used to compare GJ 1132b with other rocky exoplanets. Professor Fortney was not part of this research. He said that “What’s tremendously exciting is the possibility that this planet may be a true ‘cousin” to Venus and Earth.” When we can determine the composition of this planet’s atmospheric, it will provide interesting data to help us understand how Earth-sized planets are affected by their atmosphere. “In our solar system we have only two data points, Earth and Venus. We need to know the variety of atmospheric compositions and reasons that they make before we can determine habitability. This research was partially supported by the National Science Foundation and the MIT Torres Fellowship for Exoplanet Research. Citation: “A rocky world transiting a low-mass star,” Zachory K. Berta–Thompson and Jason A. Dittmann. Nature. 12 November, 2015. DOI: 10. 1038/nature15762.
Galactically, ‘next door” exoplanet of Earth size discovered.
