Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: alfa015 on 18/06/2019 21:50:47
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Astronomers have discovered a potentially habitable exoplanet around Teegarden's Star.
Teegarden is an old red dwarf star 12 light-years away in the Aries constellation.
The exoplanet found, called Teegarden b, has a minimum mass almost identical to Earth.
It orbits within the star's habitable zone.
And it has a 60% chance of having a temperate surface environment.
Surface temperature should be closer to 28°C assuming a similar terrestrial atmosphere.
Teegarden b is the exoplanet with the highest Earth Similarity Index discovered so far: 95%.
This means that it has the closest mass and insolation to terrestrial values.
Source: <spam link to personal youtube channel removed>
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Eh, I've heard things like this before. I'll get excited once they find something more definitive about the planet's habitability, like the detection of significant amounts of atmospheric oxygen, water vapor or whatever. Predictions and models are good, but in the past, previously-claimed "habitable" planets have often turned out to be less amicable to life than original thought.
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We have life on this planet. Are we trying to comfort ourselves that even if we destroy ourselves there is still hope for the continuance of intelligent life elsewhere? It would be much more exciting if we have a crap about our own world.
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I think the key here is "OLD red dwarf". A planet orbiting a red dwarf in the habitable zone, by necessity, has to orbit close in, where it is going to be subject to a stronger solar wind. With an old star, this means more time for that solar wind to strip the planet of any atmosphere it may of had.
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Get back to me when it's on airBnB.