Astronomy and astrophysicists are looking for planets where life could be hypothesized. Naturally, it will not be possible to physically reach such objects soon, but they are studied through observations with telescopes. There are several interesting options, among which the newest is the so-called fog planet.
This object is located in the constellation Sails, in the habitable zone. The group is terrestrial, that is, the planet conditionally resembles the Earth in some characteristics. In the atmosphere, there is water vapor in large quantities, namely, by the presence of water, it is determined whether a potentially inhabited object or not. The local star is a red dwarf. The distance to it, however, is not large enough, as a result of which it is quite hot on the planet - 260 degrees Celsius. Since there is a decent capture, the object is actually divided into a dark and a light side - in one part it is constantly light, and in the other it is constantly dark. However, experts believe that local winds are capable of spreading heat throughout the planet, because local life, if any, is available throughout the facility.
Somewhat earlier, another curious object was discovered, which was declared to be practically a double of the Earth. From the local luminary to us only 16 light years. True, it is not known whether life can arise there, since the orbit has not yet been thoroughly studied. This is almost the closest exoplanet to us. There is a red dwarf, GJ 832, and previously only a gas giant like Jupiter and a rocky super-earth have been found around it. Now astronomers have announced that there is a third planet. True, it is somewhat further from the rest, but there is an opinion that this is a double of the Earth. While the version is being checked.
We found several possible habitable planets in the constellation Cetus. The objects are almost the same in size and also weigh about twice the Earth's weight. Special filters made it possible to understand that there are many rocks on the surface of celestial bodies, and they are also regularly bombarded by meteorites. However, apparently, the planets are relatively young, some changes regularly occur there, in connection with which it can be assumed that life is being born.
There is also an object with the prefix "exo", where it is unlikely that something already lives now. KELT-9b is too close to its star, a hot white dwarf. So the temperature on the surface there is almost the same as on the Sun. The star, accordingly, is even hotter - the degrees there exceed ten thousand. The planet is roughly the size of Jupiter. To calculate how hot it is, we studied the brightness, calculating how the latter falls when KELT-9b flies around its star. It turned out that not so much, less than one percent, in connection with which it was determined that the temperature was equal to 4600 Kelvin. Obviously, there are only metals in the planet's atmosphere, however, since the strongest ultraviolet radiation from the hot luminary is affected, the destruction of that very atmosphere is observed.
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There is also an object that has a stratosphere. Found one in the constellation Poop. There is a gas layer that actively absorbs the rays of the local sun. Accordingly, it is very hot here, but a little lower it is already colder. By analyzing the infrared radiation that celestial bodies give, they generally learn a lot. In particular, it provides data on the atmosphere. If it is cold in the upper layers, there will be many black stripes, for example. It is also noticeable when the temperature only rises with every kilometer. This means that there is a stratosphere.
So they found it at WASP-121b, observing it thanks to the wide-angle camera of the Hubble telescope. True, the local stratosphere does not consist of ozone. There vanadium and titanium play the role of absorbers, which are used on Earth in various sunscreens. Accordingly, hypothetically, the planet may well be habitable.
All these findings, including, in particular, the fog planet, prove that theoretically such objects can exist where life has already appeared or sooner or later will appear. Another thing is that they are all observed at a considerable distance. That is, in fact, scientists observe the past of different planets, based on the light emitted by them. Accordingly, this kind of research is a kind of form to calm down and make sure that there are aliens or they are not. It is curious that, having started to study objects outside the solar system with telescopes, some experts were afraid of what would happen if hypothetical aliens found messages on Voyagers that were sent back in the last century.
Some have suggested that hypothetical aliens will not be as kind as some people imagine them to be, and they will want to attack Earth at all. However, since not a single living alien has yet been studied, this has not been proven. The habitability of other planets remains, since it has been proven that our Earth is far from unique, however, there are still many difficulties in this matter. Who knows in the future. Perhaps someday people will really be able to get out of the solar system and try to colonize at least some of the exoplanets from a long list - where conditions are not too hellish. At the same time, it will be possible to check whether they have remained the way scientists see them now.
Irina Letinskaya