Most Earth-Like Planet Yet May Have Been Found Just 40 Light Years Away (sciencealert.com)
- Reference: 0179200296
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/09/13/0553219/most-earth-like-planet-yet-may-have-been-found-just-40-light-years-away
- Source link: https://www.sciencealert.com/most-earth-like-planet-yet-may-have-been-found-just-40-light-years-away
"In exciting new JWST observations, the Earth-sized exoplanet TRAPPIST-1e shows hints of a gaseous envelope similar to our own, one that could facilitate liquid water on the surface."
> Although the detection is ambiguous and needs extensive follow-up to find out what the deal is, it's the closest astronomers have come yet in their quest to find a second Earth... [T]he first step is finding exoplanets that are the right distance from their host star, occupying a zone where water neither freezes under extreme cold nor evaporates under extreme heat. Announced in 2016, the discovery of the TRAPPIST-1 system was immediately exciting for this reason. The red dwarf star hosts seven exoplanets that have a rocky composition (as opposed to gas or ice giants), several of which are bang in the star's habitable, liquid water zone...
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> Red dwarf stars are also much more active than Sun-like stars, rampant with flare activity that, scientists have speculated, may have stripped any planetary atmospheres in the vicinity. Closer inspections of TRAPPIST-1d, one of the other worlds in the star's habitable zone, have turned up [2]no trace of an atmosphere . But TRAPPIST-1e is a little more comfortably located, at a slightly greater distance from the star... [T]he spectrum is consistent with an atmosphere rich in molecular nitrogen, with trace amounts of carbon dioxide and methane.
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> This is pretty tantalizing. Earth's atmosphere is [3]roughly 78 percent molecular nitrogen . If the results can be validated, TRAPPIST-1e might just be the most Earth-like exoplanet discovered to date. That is not a small if , though. Luckily, more JWST observations are in the pipeline, and the researchers should be able to validate or rule out an atmosphere very soon.
After analyzing four transits of TRAPPIST-1e across TRAPPIST-1, "We are seeing two possible explanations," says astrophysicist Ryan MacDonald of the University of St Andrews in the UK. "The most exciting possibility is that TRAPPIST-1e could have a so-called secondary atmosphere containing heavy gases like nitrogen. "But our initial observations cannot yet rule out a bare rock with no atmosphere..."
Astrophysicist Ana Glidden of MIT led the second team interpreting the results, and says " [4]We are really still in the early stages of learning what kind of amazing science we can do with Webb. It's incredible to measure the details of starlight around Earth-sized planets 40 light-years away and learn what it might be like there, if life could be possible there."
"We're in a new age of exploration that's very exciting to be a part of."
[1] https://www.sciencealert.com/most-earth-like-planet-yet-may-have-been-found-just-40-light-years-away
[2] https://www.sciencealert.com/jwst-delivers-bad-news-about-life-on-trappist-1-planet
[3] https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/air-quality/nitrogen
[4] https://news.mit.edu/2025/study-finds-habitable-zone-planet-unlikely-have-venus-or-mars-like-atmosphere-0908
Just 40 light years away (Score:2)
In cosmological scales that is very close. However, in human scales this is unreachable. We need drastic extension of life, or suspended animation, or new physics that would allow for FTL travel.
You should know better. (Score:4, Interesting)
> However, in human scales this is unreachable. We need drastic extension of life, or suspended animation, or new physics that would allow for FTL travel.
This is incorrect. The passengers on a spaceship traveling at relativistic velocity will experience time differently. From inside the spaceship, it will seem like everything outside is speeding up but time is relative and compared to the outside, they are slowing down. Therefore, [1]space travel under constant acceleration [wikipedia.org] could enable someone to travel beyond the observable universe in a human lifetime while (depending on your rate of acceleration) billions of years have passed outside the spaceship.
Naturally, an amazing energy source to provide the thrust will be required. Antimatter/matter reactions look like a possible method for at least some distances. I'm not saying it's a solved problem, I'm saying it's not impossible to accomplish in a human lifetime.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_travel_under_constant_acceleration
Re: You should know better. (Score:1)
Great theory- constant acceleration at the rate your talking about is about the same as perpetual motion. It is impossible for current engineering capabilities
Re: (Score:2)
It seems to me that only after achieving 0.999999c that time would kind of stop for the persons on the ship and time around them would appear to going at a rate of billions of years while an hour or two would pass for you. At that point, the equations show that the ship would be approaching an infinite mass, and it would take an infinite amount of energy to 'bump' them up to the speed of light.
Re: (Score:2)
The problem getting there with real physics isn't so much the length of life, but the amount of energy you need to speed up to get there and then brake.
Whatever "new physics" we might discover, it won't change the conclusions of the laws we already know, including the required energy and the inability to go faster than light.
So, yes, 4 or 40, when "light years" comes into play it is meaningless.
Something to aspire to. (Score:2)
While it may seem foolish to bother observing far away planets like this due to our lack of ability to reach them, one should remember that humanity has always had seemingly unobtainable goals that we have always dreamed of reaching. Despite the distant nature of our goals, things like this inspire us to expand our capabilities and strive to "reach for the stars".
Despite being mere fantasy for millennia, humanity has made amazing progress to reaching the goals of humanity which seem to be fundamental to hum
Just 40 Light years (Score:1)
I love astronomy trying to be relevant in the every day personâ(TM)s mind. It would take 61 Thousand years for the fastest spacecraft we have ever produced to get there. That is longer then all human documented history. So close and yet so so so far away
"Just" 40 lightyears away? (Score:2)
Wake me up when we get to the moon.
Re:"Just" 40 lightyears away? (Score:4, Informative)
> Wake me up when we get to the moon.
Oh boy, do I have GREAT news for you!: [1]Apollo 11: the first moon landing [wikipedia.org]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11