Scientists have built a computer model and found that on a planet of the Earth's type, which revolves around a system of two stars, conditions for the origin of life may well develop. Another group of researchers made an equally interesting discovery: they captured the atmosphere on the planet 39 light years from Earth. New stages in the search for habitable planets.
Under the light of two suns
Researchers from Princeton and California Institute of Technology put an Earth-like planet in a computer model orbit the binary star Kepler-35 (AB). It turned out that the conditions on such a planet could be suitable for the emergence and maintenance of life. Even in spite of the fact that such a "Earth" would be influenced by the attraction of both stars and it would move along a bizarre, curved orbit.
Unfortunately, a potentially habitable planet with two suns shining in the firmament, like Tatooine from the Star Wars saga, exists only in the computer. In reality, the Kepler-35 (AB) system observes a planet eight times larger than Earth, which orbits two stars in just 131.5 days.
NASA
According to the researchers, the work still yielded an important result. "This means that systems with double stars like the one we looked at are great for habitable planets, despite the significant differences in the amount of sunlight that hypothetical planets in such a system will receive," explained one of the study participants Max Popp, Research Fellow at Princeton University and the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg.
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Hot steam atmosphere
Almost simultaneously with the news about Kepler-35 (AB), another interesting piece of news came. John Southworth of Keele University in the UK, using the ESO / MPG telescope (located in Chile), was the first to determine the presence of an atmosphere on a planet that may be similar to Earth. Planet GJ 1132b revolves around a rather cool star, the red dwarf GJ 1132. It is believed that this rocky celestial body is 20% larger than the Earth in diameter and 60% in mass. Such planets are called super-lands. GJ 1132b is "only" 39 light years from Earth.
In some pictures taken with radio telescopes, the planet was smaller than in others. Scientists examined these images and came to the conclusion that a certain area at the edge of the celestial body is transparent. This area surrounding the planet is its atmosphere. According to scientists, the gas shell of GJ 1132b consists mostly of methane or water vapor. The presence of steam is of particular interest to scientists, since it means that there is liquid water on the planet, which evaporates and forms the atmosphere.
NASA
Minus three
Planets like GJ 1132b are similar in size and composition to Earth and are so far from their stars that they could well have conditions for the origin of life.
Meanwhile, such planets are increasingly disappointing scientists. So, at least three of the seven planets orbiting the red dwarf TRAPPIST-1, may in fact turn out to be dead worlds. Scientists from the Hungarian Konkoy Observatory presented a study of the star's magnetic field to their colleagues. It turned out that the activity of TRAPPIST-1 is capable of provoking frequent and powerful magnetic storms.
A similar geomagnetic storm on Earth in 1859 knocked out telegraph systems in Europe and America. The aurora could be observed from the shores of the Caribbean Sea. Taking into account the fact that the planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system are closer to the star than the Earth to the Sun, flares of this strength occur there much more often. According to the available data, in 80 days their number can reach five, and weaker outbreaks occur four times more often than on Earth. Such activity could render the atmosphere of these planets uninhabitable.
Star versus atmosphere
Another disappointment is the study of the planet Proxima b, orbiting the red dwarf Proxima Centauri. It is the closest exoplanet to Earth, just over four light years away.
Scientists from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics presented their models according to which the origin of life on Proxima b could be prevented not only by flares on the star, but also by the stellar wind, which is much stronger and more heterogeneous than the solar one. As experts recently reported, it was because of the solar wind that Mars could once lose its atmosphere: the plasma flow gradually knocked out more than half of the particles of its gas envelope into space. Something similar probably happened with Proxima b.
However, scientists will soon have the opportunity to learn much more about whether planets in other systems have an atmosphere and what its composition is. The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, developed by NASA, the European and Canadian Space Agencies, is scheduled for 2018. It will allow you to look at planets in the infrared spectrum and analyze the composition of their atmospheres.
Elena Smotrova
