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Saturday, May 25, 2024
Space News: New planet that could support human life discovered 'close' to Earth by UK scientists
New planet that could support human life discovered 'close' to Earth by UK scientists
The planet, called Gliese 12b, is around the same size as Venus and will help scientists understand more about other Earth-like planets in outer space.
An artist's impression of the view from Gliese 12b. Pic: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (Caltech-IPAC)
UK scientists have discovered a new planet that could potentially support human life and it isn't that far away… relatively speaking.
The temperature on Gliese 12b is around 42C which means it could be liveable. In fact, it is one of the few known planets where humans could theoretically survive.
"It'd be uncomfortable for a human but the way we define 'habitability' is that liquid water could exist on the surface of the planet, which in this case it could," says Larissa Palethorpe from University of Edinburgh.
Ms Palethorpe and a team of scientists from around the world used NASA'sTransiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, known as TESS, to spot the planet orbiting around its star. It took them less than a year to then calculate its size, temperature and how it moves.
"Smaller planets are really hard to find," said Ms Palethorpe. "We want to know more about Earth-sized planets so we can understand how many other Earths are out there.
"Detecting one so nearby is really exciting because it allows us to do follow up analysis of the atmosphere, so we will be able to learn a lot more about it."
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