Data's says "SuperEarth K2-18B" has Life maybe Hidden from Us
SUPER EARTH K2-18B: EXOPLANET THAT COULD HARBOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE HAS A NEIGHBOR HIDING BEHIND IT.
Astronomers have identified a distant exoplanet as a “super-Earth” that has the potential to harbor alien life. On top of this, the team also discovered that this planet—K2-18b—has another, similar world hiding behind it.
A super-Earth is a planet with a mass higher than Earth but smaller than larger bodies like Uranus and Neptune.
The two new super-Earths orbit a red-dwarf star around 111 light years away. K2-18b, scientists say, could be in an excellent location for alien life to emerge—having perfect conditions for surface water, a fundamental ingredient for life, to exist. Scientists combed the skies with the European Southern Observatory’s planet-hunting HARPS device in Chile. They found the planets circling the red dwarf star K2-18, which is part of the constellation, Leo.
The discovery of the first planet, K2-18b, took place in 2015. Sitting within the habitable zone of the star, astronomers have been investigating whether or not it could support life. This meant finding out if K2-18b was a hunk of rock, like Earth, or a dense body of gas, like Jupiter.
Using the fiber-optic HARPS technology, the astronomers watched the changing position and speed of stars. This kind of movement can indicate that a star is being pulled by the gravitational force of orbiting planets. By collecting so-called “radial velocity” data on K2-18, the scientists were able to estimate the size of K2-18b.
“If you can get the mass and radius, you can measure the bulk density of the planet and that can tell you what the bulk of the planet is made of,” lead author Ryan Cloutier said in a statement.
Using sophisticated machine-learning techniques, the team figured out the planet could well be an Earth-like planet made mostly of rock and with a gaseous atmosphere. Alternatively, the planet could be made up of water encased in a thick crust of ice. Thier findings have been submitted to the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Second super-earth discovery
As well as taking one giant leap closer to finding a potentially habitable exoplanet, the team also uncovered a second Earth-like planet orbiting K2-18. This super-Earth—K2-18c—unfortunately, is a much poorer candidate for life. Sitting too close to its star, meaning the surface is probably too hot to support life.
The identification of two new super-Earths, however, is still a significant advance for astrophysics. According to study authors, the discovery sheds important light on the prevalence of multi-planet systems around dwarf stars like K2-18.
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