Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: alfa015 on 18/11/2017 03:19:56

Title: Could this Earth-Like exoplanet orbiting Ross 128 harbour life?
Post by: alfa015 on 18/11/2017 03:19:56
Hi guys! exciting news, probably the most important discovery of the year
 
Astronomers from the European Southern Observatory have found the second potentially habitable exoplanet closest to Earth, located at only 11 light years away. I made an analysis on it:
As if this were not enough, on May 2017, astronomers from the SETI Institute detected unusual radio signals coming from Ross 128
 
What do you think? Do you think that the exoplanet Ross 128 b hosts intelligent life? If so, why?

Ps: admins please remove this post from the subforum 'just chat'. thanks.
Title: Re: Could this Earth-Like exoplanet orbiting Ross 128 harbour life?
Post by: chris on 18/11/2017 10:36:26
Thanks for flagging this up; I like the video too!

It's a nice story and a testimony to scientific endeavour: having read the paper, the ESO team made observations for over a decade to collect the data that they presented this week.

Here's the write-up that I prepared on the findings, which might provide additional insights for readers: https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/science-news/earth-exoplanet-discovered
Title: Re: Could this Earth-Like exoplanet orbiting Ross 128 harbour life?
Post by: evan_au on 18/11/2017 11:20:45
Quote from: Chris
Ross 128, which is about one fifth of the size of the Sun
Pedantic editorial comment... Please clarify:
Is this 1/5 of the Sun's:
- Mass?
- Volume?
- Radius?

Wikipedia suggests:Mass: 16% M☉, Radius: 20% R☉, volume: 0.8% V☉
So I guess this should say radius (with the mass not too far off...)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_128
Title: Re: Could this Earth-Like exoplanet orbiting Ross 128 harbour life?
Post by: jeffreyH on 18/11/2017 14:13:29
The Milky Way is 100,000 light years in diameter so this is our next door neighbour. Since Ross 128 is a red dwarf it hasn't had the same type of evolution as the sun. This may have quite a bearing on how life might have evolved on Ross 128b. The likelihood that this evolution is in step with that on earth is the question.