NASA's TESS spots possible 'second Earth' nearby

BGR ^ | January 7th, 2020 | Mike Wehner

[SunkenCiv]

[R]esearchers using NASA's TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and the Spitzer Space Telescope have confirmed the presence of a nearby planet called TOI 700 d. The world sits comfortably in the habitable zone of its host star, and from what astronomers can tell, it appears to be a lot like Earth. The best part? It's relatively close.

Okay, so as we've all come to learn, "close" is a relative term when we're talking about objects in space. In the case of TOI 700 d, "close" means that the planet is hanging out at a distance of around 100 light-years. That's still an incredible distance that we have absolutely no way of traversing at the moment, but it's far closer than many other newly-discovered exoplanets...

The star that the Earth-alike is orbiting is quite a bit different from our own. It's much smaller and cooler, with only about 40% of the mass of our own Sun and surface temperatures of about half.

Exactly what the planet's surface looks like is still a mystery. Astronomers believe that the planet is tidally locked with it star, meaning that it's always showing its star the same "face," with one side of the planet always covered in light and the other in darkness.

It's an incredibly interesting discovery, but we'll have to wait for technology to catch up before we can say whether such a world would be worth visiting if that ever even becomes an option.

[SunkenCiv]

TESS Mission's First Earth-size World in Star's Habitable-zone | NASA Goddard | Published on January 6, 2020

[SunkenCiv]

In before the usual trolls with their lack of interest in astronomy, and their regurgitation of the "we can never go there, whine whine whine, so no one should have any interest in this article, or this discovery, or in this topic."

..."close" is a relative term when we're talking about objects in space. In the case of TOI 700 d, "close" means that the planet is hanging out at a distance of around 100 light-years. That's still an incredible distance that we have absolutely no way of traversing at the moment, but it's far closer than many other newly-discovered exoplanets.

[SunkenCiv]

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[Long Jon No Silver]

Tidally locked to a star of only 40℅ output as our own. It must be very 'earth like' /s

[fieldmarshaldj]

I’d think the Good Lord would not have put all these stars and planets in the universe if He didn’t intend us to go out there someday. Just my opinion.

[SunkenCiv]

"To consider the Earth as the only populated world in infinite space is as absurd as to assert that in an entire field of millet, only one grain will grow." -- Metrodorus, 4th c BC Greek philosopher

"Heaven and earth are large, yet in the whole of space they are but as a small grain of rice. How unreasonable it would be to suppose that, besides the heaven and earth which we can see, there are no other heavens and no other earths." -- Teng Mu, 13th c AD Chinese philosopher

[eldoradude]

Too far away in terms of a human lifetime at current technology but perhaps not when thinking in geologic time. Assuming our star system travels at approximately 514,000 miles per hour around the galaxy, 100 light years is about 1,303 years away.

[SunkenCiv]

Probably the only reason ETs haven't gotten rid of us when they visit is, we taste bad. :^)

[Telepathic Intruder]

No spin, other than once per year, also means no magnetic field to protect its atmosphere. It’s probably more like Mars than Earth; a near-vacuum desert planet.

[eldoradude]

I goofed the math a little bit, more like about 130,000 years away...

The ETs prefer star chicken and we taste like sweet pork, oh well.

[SunkenCiv]

Maybe no spin, but I doubt that a magnetic field has much to do with whether there's any atmosphere, either there, or on Mars, or Earth for that matter.

Venus is known not to have a magnetic field. The reason for its absence is not at all clear, but it may be related to a reduced intensity of convection in the Venusian mantle. Venus only has an induced magnetosphere formed by the Sun's magnetic field carried by the solar wind.

Venus has the most massive atmosphere of the terrestrial planets, which include Mercury, Earth, and Mars.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Dey some smart folk.

[SunkenCiv]

Dang, I was looking forward that trip. ;^) Sometimes I wonder if decimals have a point. /rimshot

Genesis — Counting Out Time (catchy, but about unprotected teen sex)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXUmKw4pFdc

[ETCM]

Assuming our star system travels at approximately 514,000 miles per hour around the galaxy, 100 light years is about 1,303 years away.

But virtually everything in the galaxy is orbiting in the same fashion. The relative distance to this "second earth" won't change significantly as we orbit the galactic center.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Venus has substantial atmosphere loss, similar to Mars which once had enough air pressure to support liquid water. But since Venus has so much of it, it will take a long time to deplete. To add to your point, however, the moon Titan has an atmosphere thicker than Earth's, even with the much lower gravity. The difference is the amount of solar wind. Titan only gets about 1% that Earth does.

Earth's magnetic field keeps most of the solar wind from interacting directly with earth's upper atmosphere, which would ionize it and blow it into space similar to what they think happened to Mars.

[4Runner]

A light year is not time. It is distance. Specifically, it’s the distance light travels in one year at 186,000 miles per second. Multiply the number of seconds in a year by that number and then by 100 and you will have the distance from earth to this other planet in miles. I know. The number is truly astronomical.

[Secret Agent Man]

Possibly, but not in our current situation, ie when the universe is still in its fallen, damaged state.

We will get there the same way He is able to. Well the believers will, anyways.

[SunkenCiv]

There is a difficult-to-kill wish that Mars was once "Earthlike", but it's apparent that it has never had much atmosphere. Venus must get hit very hard by the solar wind -- the atmosphere must have been even more massive than it is now, unless of course Venus migrated into its current orbit, which isn't terribly unlikely, given its lack of tidal lock with the Sun (Venus has a slow retrograde axial rotation).

[Telepathic Intruder]

We know Mars once had liquid water, due to its many dried up river beds, which is not possible now.

But does that alone qualify as "earth-like"? At some point Mars lost its magnetic field and the solar wind took away most of its atmosphere, and the water froze or evaporated. That is the most common theory I've heard. It was also hit by a very big asteroid. Maybe it was a combination of the two.

But you have a point which changes mine. Likely this 'second Earth' is similar to Mars, or similar to Venus. Very unlikely that without a magnetic field it's similar to Earth, however. At least not for very long.

[fieldmarshaldj]

“The Solar Wind, came blowin’ in, from across the Sun...”