For the first time, scientists have found a rocky planet with an atmosphere orbiting in a star’s habitable zone. Researchers from Harvard University say the Earth-like world has conditions similar to those on Earth.
The exoplanet, LHS 1140 b, is 48 light-years from Earth. It orbits a red dwarf star at a distance close enough for water to remain liquid, but far enough away that it would not boil.
Very cool discovery. But just to temper any overly excited reactions…
Also LHS 1140 b is tidally locked to its red dwarf Star, which means one side of it is constantly facing the star and the other side is always saving away from the star. So the
fatfar side will be very, very cold. While the doesn’t rule out the possibilities of life or a breathable atmosphere, it does complicate all that.The far side will be very cold, but there will be some heat transfer through the atmosphere so it doesn’t necessarily mean life can’t exist there.
True, but up till now we didn’t even know if a tidally locked planet around a red dwarf could even hold an atmosphere (since red dwarfs tend to have much more powerful x-ray flares, and planets sit much closer to them than our G-type sun). So the fact that this one does have lightweight Helium in the atmosphere would seem to significantly increase the odds that there’s life elsewhere, since red dwarfs are super common and if there’s 1 that can hold an atmosphere, odds are that there are many, many others.
Being tidally locked could make evolution less dynamic than earth, but it also means there’s a Goldilocks zone in there that’s always around the right temperature and things could just migrate a little to the east or west to stay within that area. What I find a bit odd is that they would know the approximate gravity of the planet by now, but there’s no mention of that in the article. Makes me assume it’s bad. Probably too dense for anything but simple life forms.
We need a nice orange dwarf star planet within 15 percent of our own gravity and a good molten core, a moon or two, and a bunch of big ass blocker planets to keep most large asteroids from hitting it and a low enough amount of radioactive crap on it.
I’m trying to imagine the weather: Too hot on the sunny side…too cold on the dark side…and in the sunset/terminator region…sounds nice, but…no…superstorm cells and permanent hypercane-strength winds…maybe underground :/
I would think that the air towards the ground level would be cool and not terribly high speed. It would also always be coming from the same direction, so if it was too high, being on one side of a cliff should block it all.
But a habitable ring around the twilight portion sounds very cool and world build-y.
Ryloth from Star Wars where the people with the head tentacles are from is such a planet.
Aren’t there issues with constant and unsurvivable wind as atmosphere is heated on the sunward side and cold atmo from the leeward rushes in underneath?
It’d be an interesting environment. What if the atmosphere was thin so the winds were fast, but not strong? Lots of variables to consider, and I’m sure if life could start, it’d find a niche to live in.
From our understanding, life is likely to start in water - Not sure how much that’s impacted by winds
But I recon life can evolve in billions of directions, so over time something larger might survive on ground and in air
It’s not unsurvivable if the organisms there have evolved to survive it.
I’m pretty sure there was a Vin Diesel movie with that premise.
Reminds me of an excerpt from Kurt Vonnegut’s The Sirens Of Titan: https://www.flickr.com/photos/romasita/2766136797
Well, that’s why it has all that blubber! To keep it warm.
Damnit autocorrect!
But your reply genuinely made me chuckle.
I had a fantastic mental image of a blubbery planet, so we both got a good chuckle from this