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.
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.