O Wednesday, it was announced by scientists that they have seen a planet similar to earth revolving around the orbit of the neighboring star of our sun which gives them hope to find life in this planet in the future.
‘Proxiam b’ is the name of this planet whose temperature is well suited for the presence of water. It was found with the data of past 16 years.
French astrophysicist Julien Morin told that they have at last found a planet orbit the star closest to our sun and possibly has racks. It is the first planet outside solar system viewed by human-made probe.
British astronomer Guillem Anglada called it as experience of his life as his team along with European Southern Observatory telescopes viewed the planet in Chilean desert and found its properties through Doppler method.
These astronomers spent 60 consecutive days to view the star and the planet as it shifts the light spectrum after every 11.2 days.
The speed of the star was 5 km per hour as it moves towards and away from solar system.
Goldilocks zone
The scientists found through calculation that the reason for this to and fro motion of star was pull of an around planet. Anglada told that there is no doubt according to statistics that they have found a planet around this star.
Proxima b is just four light years away from solar system while it orbits around 7 million km from its star and its mass is 1.3 times that of earth.
It is 21 times closer to its star as compared to earth but the star burns at a lower temperature. Due to this reason, this planet is neither too hot to evaporate water nor too cold to be freeze.
But atmosphere is also required to maintain life apart from water and the researchers don’t know much about this factor.
A German expert Ansgar Reiners told that they don’t know whether its atmosphere is like Earth, Venus or is it without any atmosphere.
He told that the computer models show that the temperature of such planet with an atmosphere could be between -30 Celsius to 30C.
Like moon, this planet also has one face in front of its sun and the other one is continuously on the shadow. In order to survive life on the proxima b, it has to bear x-rays and ultraviolet rays more than 100 times on earth.
Search for life
Like a strong magnetic field, an atmosphere can deflect these harmful rays. But life is possible in high level of radiations.
A French expert told that since 1995, 3500 such planets have been discovered but most of them are composed of gas where life is not possible. The other 10% with rocky surfaces are either too hot or too cold to retain water. Few where the water can be present are far away and out of reach.
An example is a planet ‘Kepler 452b that was seen by NASA which has 385 day long year with the possibilities of sunshine, active volcanoes and oceans with 60% more area than earth but there is no hope for us to reach there in near future as it is 1400 light year away.
As compared to that, ‘Proxima b’ is quite closer but even then humans can’t reach there with current chemically fuelled rockets. He said more research is required in this matter.
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