Posted on 12/27/2022 9:21:12 AM PST by Red Badger
Two Earth Mass Planets Orbiting Star GJ 100 Artist’s impression of two Earth-mass planets orbiting the star GJ 1002. Credit: Alejandro Suárez Mascareño and Inés Bonet (IAC)
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An international scientific team led by researchers at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has discovered the presence of two planets with Earth-like masses in orbit around the star GJ 1002, a red dwarf not far from the Solar System. Both planets are in the habitability zone of the star
“Nature seems bent on showing us that Earth-like planets are very common. With these two we now know 7 in planetary systems quite near to the Sun” explains Alejandro Suárez Mascareño, an IAC researcher, who is the first author of the study published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
The newly discovered exoplanets orbit the star GJ 1002, which is at a distance of less than 16 light years from the Solar System. Both of them have masses similar to that of the Earth, and they are in the habitability zone of their star. GJ 1002b, the inner of the two, takes little more than 10 days to complete an orbit around the star, while GJ 1002c needs a little over 21 days. “GJ 1002 is a red dwarf star, with barely one-eighth the mass of the Sun. It is quite a cool, faint star. This means that its habitability zone is very close to the star” explains Vera María Passegger, a co-author of the article and an IAC researcher.
The proximity of the star to our Solar System implies that the two planets, especially GJ 1002c, are excellent candidates for the characterization of their atmospheres based either on their reflected light, or on their thermal emission. “The future ANDES spectrograph for the ELT telescope at ESO in which the IAC is participating, could study the presence of oxygen in the atmosphere of GJ 1002c” notes Jonay I. González Hernández, an IAC researcher who is a co-author of the article. In addition, both planets satisfy the characteristics needed for them to be objectives for the future LIFE mission, which is presently in a study phase.
GJ 1002 System Habitability Zone Infographic Infographic comparing the relative distance between the discovered planets and their star with the inner planets of the Solar System. The region marked in green represents the habitable zone of the two planetary systems. Credit: Design: Alejandro Suárez Mascareño (IAC). Planets of the Solar System: NASA
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The discovery was made during a collaboration between the consortia of the two instruments ESPRESSO and CARMENES. GJ 1002 was observed by CARMENES between 2017 and 2019, and by ESPRESSO between 2019 and 2021. “Because of its low temperature the visible light from GJ 1002 is too faint to measure its variations in velocity with the majority of spectrographs,” says Ignasi Ribas, researcher at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) and director of the Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC). CARMENES has a sensitivity over a wide range of near-infrared wavelengths which is superior to those of other spectrographs aimed at detecting variations in the velocities of stars, and this allowed it to study GJ 1002, from the 3.5m telescope at Calar Alto observatory.
The combination of ESPRESSO, and the light-gathering power of the VLT 8m telescopes at ESO allowed measurements to be made with an accuracy of only 30 cm/sec, not attainable with any other instrument in the world. “Either of the two groups would have had many difficulties if they had tackled this work independently. Jointly we have been able to get much further than we would have done acting independently” states Suárez Mascareño.
Reference:
“Two temperate Earth-mass planets orbiting the nearby star GJ 1002” by A. Suárez Mascareño, E. González-Alvarez, M. R. Zapatero Osorio, J. Lillo-Box, J. P. Faria, V. M. Passegger, J. I. González Hernández, P. Figueira, S. Sozzetti, R. Rebolo, F. Pepe, N. C. Santos, S. Cristiani, C. Lovis, A. M. Silva, I. Ribas, et al., Accepted on 21 November 2022, Astronomy & Astrophysics.
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202244991
Other members of the IAC who have collaborated in this publication are the researchers Rafael Rebolo López, Víctor Sánchez Béjar and Enric Pallé.
2 places the Liberals can call home , please move now
“ load up the liberals and ship them out, their utopia awaits.”
“To Serve Man” - It’s a cookbook!
Voyager 1 or 2 could get there in only about 300,000 years. That’s not too bad.
Don’t get too excited - any Red Dwarf planets would not be prime real estate - from Wiki, FWIW:
Modern evidence suggests that planets in red dwarf systems are extremely unlikely to be habitable. In spite of their great numbers and long lifespans, there are several factors which may make life difficult on planets around a red dwarf.
First, planets in the habitable zone of a red dwarf would be so close to the parent star that they would likely be tidally locked. For a nearly circular orbit, this would mean that one side would be in perpetual daylight and the other in eternal night.
This could create enormous temperature variations from one side of the planet to the other. Such conditions would appear to make it difficult for forms of life similar to those on Earth to evolve.
And it appears there is a great problem with the atmosphere of such tidally locked planets: the perpetual night zone would be cold enough to freeze the main gases of their atmospheres, leaving the daylight zone bare and dry.
On the other hand though, a theory proposes that either a thick atmosphere or planetary ocean could potentially circulate heat around such a planet
Variability in stellar energy output may also have negative impacts on the development of life. Red dwarfs are often flare stars, which can emit gigantic flares, doubling their brightness in minutes. This variability makes it difficult for life to develop and persist near a red dwarf.
While it may be possible for a planet orbiting close to a red dwarf to keep its atmosphere even if the star flares, more-recent research suggests that these stars may be the source of constant high-energy flares and very large magnetic fields, diminishing the possibility of life as we know it.
16 light years is what it says in the article
GJ 1002b is closest to its star and takes just over 10 days to complete an orbit; GJ 1002c is further out, with an orbit of just over 20 days.
For example star GJ 1002 (the star this article is about) has about 10% of the mass of Sol (or sun). And of the two planets orbiting the star, neither is a massive Jupiter-like planet. Thus, any life on either of these planets would suffer frequent life extinction events like our Earth would if we didn't have big brother Jupiter protecting us by sucking in most asteroids into its much larger gravity well. The same for our massive sun (relative to star GJ 1002) pulling in lots of potential life extinction objects into its gravity well. Thus, that event rarely happens to Earth.
That's just one of many characteristics. Then there's the fact that star GJ 1002 is a red dwarf star which tends to be highly volatile with a lot more flares (and since it's smaller the planets are orbiting closer to it than Earth orbits our Sol star...).
We could go on and on and on about how special not just Earth is but also our star is, or even our Milky Way galaxy is. The more you look at it, the more the most plausible explanation seems to be is that it's specifically created for life by God. Then once you realize that, when it comes to determining if there's advanced life elsewhere it becomes a question of if God decided to create life elsewhere besides just Earth. I don't know the answer to that.
Really whizzing around- a guy would get dizzy
—% near the sun??? WTF...
Yes, but it’s a dry heat
Just because humans would likely die under such conditions does not mean another form would not thrive.
Humans cannot live under the oceans without aid, or at the bottom of the Marianas Trench, or in hot volcanic undersea vents - but other forms do.
Life is everywhere. It just that we would find Earth-like planets more to our liking, than say Mars
A red dwarf star will not support life.
A robotic probe could get there in under a hundred years. Long range planning might make it worthwhile.
This attempt to scale down the Goldilocks Zone is a joke. 10 and 21 day years? Yikes.
lol, oh yeah, like Vegas...
“There’s no point in acting surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display at your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for 50 of your Earth years, so you’ve had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it’s far too late to start making a fuss about it now. … What do you mean you’ve never been to Alpha Centauri? Oh, for heaven’s sake, mankind, it’s only four light years away, you know. I’m sorry, but if you can’t be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that’s your own lookout. Energize the demolition beams.”
Think about how few organisms could survive on land if we didn't have a magnetic field blocking much of the radiation. Our planet's molten highly metallic core seems to be a unique occurrence, but I guess it's possible to find another planet with one.
But can you find one that has a strong magnetic field, while also being in the goldilocks zone for liquid water? And have enough tectonic activity to stir up heavy elements from the bottoms of oceans and the earth's crust, but not so much tectonic activity that it kills too much advanced life? And not have a synchronous rotation with its host star (it's common for the same side of a planet to face the star like the same side of the moon faces the earth)? Etc...
lol - and now for some Vogon poetry …
We’ve been 60+ years getting people to Mars....Maybe in another 30?
Don’t Panic!
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