Buzz
(Homeland) - The astronomy community is buzzing with excitement over the discovery of two Super Earths near the Solar System!
According to the latest space news posted on New York Post (USA), an international team of astronomers has found 2 new Super Earths orbiting a super cool dwarf star just 100 light-years away from Earth.
DISCOVERY OF TWO SUPER EARTHS NEAR THE SOLAR SYSTEM: 'GOLDILOCKS ZONE FOR LIFE'
These are two exoplanets that scientists have identified, one of which may have the necessary conditions for life to thrive, or in other words, it is located in the 'habitable zone' (or Goldilocks zone).
The two exoplanets are named LP 890-9b and LP 890-9c, discovered relatively close to us - just 100 light-years away, and they orbit the parent star named LP 890-9.
Building upon previous findings from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), researchers at the University of Birmingham in England have utilized their SPECULOOS telescope - short for 'Search for Habitable Planets Eclipsing Ultra-cool Stars' - to confirm the potential habitability of these two exoplanets.
As per the latest information, astronomers have significant initial details about two Super Earths as follows:
- The exoplanet closest to the primary star, LP 890-9b, is about 30% larger than Earth and rapidly orbits the dwarf star in just 2.7 Earth days. Its orbit takes it as close as 2.8 million km from the red dwarf. According to scientists, it receives about 4.1 times more heat and light from its star than Earth.
- The second exoplanet, known as LP 890-9c, is slightly larger than LP 890-9b and about 40% larger than our Earth; Its orbit takes it about 6 million km from the parent star. LP 890-9c completes its orbit in approximately 8.5 Earth days.
Astronomers believe this second planet (LP 890-9c) lies within the 'habitable zone' of its parent star, where it's neither too hot nor too cold to support the existence of liquid water on its surface.
According to astronomers, LP 890-9c's daylight side receives about 90% of the heat and light our planet receives from the Sun. This suggests that if there's a suitable atmosphere, liquid water could exist on its surface.
To test this assumption in the future, astronomers hope to utilize NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to study this system. If LP 890-9c has an atmosphere, the telescope may detect its signature and also attempt to determine its chemical composition.
Illustration of two Super Earths orbiting a red dwarf star. Image: Mark Garlick / Science Photo Library via Getty Images
Characteristics of the stars and planets in the LP 890-9 system. Source: Adeline Deward
Not long ago, TESS also had success in discovering 2 new Super Earths. The first is a Super Earth named TOI-1452b, located in the Draco constellation, 100 light-years away from us. TOI-1452b was initially identified by scientists as a potentially vast ocean world; Next is the Super Earth TOI-836b located 90 light-years away from us. Despite having characteristics of a Super Earth, TOI-836b is a scorching hot planet - with its surface temperature reaching up to 500 degrees Celsius.
'TESS space telescope searches for exoplanets (planets outside the Solar System) using the transit method, by monitoring the brightness of thousands of stars simultaneously, looking for small dimming that may be caused by planets passing in front of their host stars' - Laetitia Delrez, an exoplanet scientist at the University of Liège (Belgium) and the lead author of the detailed discovery paper, stated.
'TESS's job is the first step. The equally important second step for astronomers is to follow up with ground-based telescopes - often essential - to confirm the nature of the discovered candidate planets and to refine measurements of their size and orbital characteristics' - the author added.
This next step is particularly crucial in the case of cool stars like LP 890-9 (the parent star of the 2 Super Earths just discovered) because much of their light is emitted in the form of infrared rays, which TESS's sensitivity is limited to.
This weakness of TESS is addressed by the telescopes of the SPECULOOS project, situated in Chile and on Tenerife, an island just west of Morocco. These telescopes are equipped with highly sensitive cameras for near-infrared light.
SCIENTISTS EXCITED FOR THE NEXT MISSION
Michaël Gillon, an astronomer at the University of Liège and the principal investigator of the SPECULOOS project, stated: 'The goal of SPECULOOS is to search for potentially habitable planets around some of the smallest and coolest stars in the solar neighborhood. This strategy is driven by the fact that such planets are particularly suitable for detailed studies of their atmospheres and the search for possible chemical traces of life with large observatories, such as NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)'.
Michaël Gillon compared the discovery of 2 Super Earths LP 890-9b and LP 890-9c orbiting the cool star LP 890-9 to the search for exoplanets in the TRAPPIST-1 system.
The TRAPPIST-1 System. Source: NASA
Among the 7 known exoplanets orbiting the TRAPPIST-1 system, 3 planets are located in the 'habitable zone', making the TRAPPIST-1 system a prime target for further astronomical investigation.
And the fact that one of these newly discovered worlds occupies the habitable zone of the parent star LP 890-9 adds even more allure to delving deeper into this system. This is what truly captivates the scientific community!
'This allows us to observe more and investigate whether the planet LP 890-9c has an atmosphere or not, and if so, we will continue to study its nature and assess its potential for habitability' - Professor of Planetary Science Amaury Triaud, an astrophysicist at the University of Birmingham (UK) and head of the SPECULOOS team, stated.
Scientists will search for factors contributing to the creation of life, such as the size and distance of the exoplanet from its parent star, as well as the size and temperature of that parent star.
'The habitable zone is a concept whereby a planet with geological conditions and atmosphere similar to Earth would have a surface temperature allowing water to remain in a liquid state for billions of years' - Professor Amaury Triaud explained.
Our Earth lies within the Goldilocks zone. Image: Getty Images / Science Photo Libra
Next, scientists aim to study the atmosphere of SPECULOOS-2c, possibly with JWST, which recently detected carbon dioxide in an exoplanet's atmosphere.
'The key is to detect as many temperate worlds as possible to study the diversity of exoplanetary climates; and ultimately to pinpoint locations to measure the frequency of biological occurrences in the universe' - Amaury Triaud concluded.
The team's research was published on Wednesday (September 6) in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Article sources: Universe Magazine, New York Post, Space
