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After studying the data collected by the Kepler Space Telescope, an international team of scientists discovered a new exoplanet with very attractive features. It is 300 light years from us, it rotates in the population area, and in size and temperature it is very reminiscent of Earth.
The Kepler Space Observatory worked in orbit from 2009 to 2018, finding several thousand distant exoplanets. However, most of them are much larger than Earth and located at a distance from their stars, which cannot create a comfortable environment for potential life. However, analysis of the data collected from Kepler is ongoing, and they were recently able to detect the extrasolar planet Kepler-1649c, which had previously been neglected.
Kepler searched for exoplanets, measuring the jump of the light curves of different stars. However, such oscillations can cause not only planets to pass between the star and the telescope, but also other phenomena, giving false positive results in 88% of cases. NASA’s Robovetter algorithm, which combines data and finds false positives, helped avoid this error.
This is how Kepler-1649c was found: a rocky planet only 1.06 times larger than Earth and receiving 75% of its light from our star compared to ours. This means that its temperature may also be close to that of Earth, although it is too early to draw conclusions, as the composition of its atmosphere is unknown. Most importantly, the exoplanet’s orbit lies within the Kepler-1649 star population zone. This means that there may be liquid water on the surface.
According to NASA representatives, although some exoplanets found in population areas are closer to Earth, both in distance and in temperature, it is the first to resemble Earth in every way. However, this does not mean that people can feel comfortable there. The star around which the planet rotates in just 19.5 days is a red dwarf. And there is at least one rocky planet of the same size in the system, but its orbit extends almost twice as close to the star.
Red dwarfs: the stars are very restless. They emit powerful currents of radiation and particles from time to time that are capable of destroying all life on the nearby planet. On the other hand, the planet’s orbit is stable, which is why it has had a long life, and red dwarfs are the most common type of stars in our galaxy.
However, the planet seems to be one of the most suitable candidates for the population. In fact, many of the known exoplanets are even smaller and on Earth. However, the combination of both is found only in Kepler-1649c. But, unfortunately, the error in the calculations is high enough to claim that life can exist there.
The report was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
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