Planet Ross 128 b in 11 of sv. years from us can be a haven for life
Meet our new neighbor: a planet the size of the Earth is only 11 remote. years from us can potentially contain life.
Exoplanet Ross 128 b in the view of the artist
European scientists announced this week the discovery of a planet orbiting the star Ross 128 close to us. The planet, named Ross 128 b , is estimated to have a temperature range that allows it to contain liquid water on the surface. Ross 128 b is currently the second closest planet to us after Proxima Centauri b located at a distance of 4.22 St. of the year. Xavier Bonfils , the lead author of the publication with which this discovery was announced, reports that the mass of the planet is close to 1.35 Earth masses.
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If this news is not interesting enough, it also has another side related to the SETI project aimed at finding extraterrestrial civilizations. Earlier this year, Ross 128 of the Planetary Community (the author of the original publication - approx. Lane) already made an announcement about this star, from which it seemed to be a semi-repetitive signal. The signal was later explained by noises from a geostationary satellite, but this announcement again returned to the game Ross 128 as a potentially habitable star system. This discovery will soon make this system a target for many observations, including the SETI radio telescopes.
The most important question: Is planet Ross 128 b habitable?
The star's habitability zone is the region of the distance to the star, in which liquid may exist on the surface of the planet. Depending on the temperature of the star, this region varies. In our solar system, this range is roughly between the orbits of Venus and Mars. But for colder stars, even planets closer to this region may contain liquid water.
Ross 128 b falls under this scenario. The parent star is a red dwarf , which means the smaller mass of the star and the temperature on its surface is almost two times lower than that of the Sun. Ross 128 b is 20 times closer to a star than Earth and it takes about 9.9 days to complete a full circle around its star. However, due to the lower temperature of the star, this should give the planet a temperature between -60 and 20 ° C. It is highly likely to place it in the habitable zone, but scientists cannot yet state this with certainty.
Just being in a habitable zone does not guarantee the Ross 128 b that it is actually habitable. Many planets in red dwarfs are in a tidal capture , which means that all such planets are always turned by one side to their star, which makes one side of the planet much hotter and the other cooler. And both of these states are not conducive to sustaining life.
In addition, solar flares from red dwarfs like Ross 128 and Proxima Centauri are a source of ultraviolet and x-ray radiation, which is detrimental to earthly life forms. However, since Ross 128 is a less active star than Proxima Centauri, it is now “the closest place for a comfortable stay of life,” according to data from the European Southern Observatory .
European scientists have found the Ross 128 b using the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher or HARPS - a 3.6-meter telescope at the Chilean observatory of La Silla , working on the separation of starlight into its frequency components. Exoplanets also attract their stars and cause them to oscillate slightly. This leads to small fluctuations in the stellar spectrum, and following these shifts, HARPS can detect the presence of planets orbiting this star. In this case, HARPS took data collection for about a decade to eventually discover Ross 128 b.
Being just 11 over. years, Ross 128 b is already our star neighbor, but it’s also interesting that this planet is going to visit us: the star is moving in our direction and will overtake Proxima Centauri in the rank of the nearest star after 79 thousand years.
The star Ross 128 is located near the Virgo constellation in the center right and highlighted in red
Cold and light red dwarfs are the most common type of stars - at least in sunny environments. In fact, it is easier to detect exoplanets near red dwarfs for the reason that they are dimmer (not one of them is visible from the earth with the naked eye), thereby not illuminating their surroundings with them. In addition to this, planets close to their star like the Ross 128 b are more visible, which makes them easier to search with tools like HARPS.
Red dwarfs are also a frequent target for a SETI project search, mostly because of their prevalence. Breakthrough Listen Yuri Milner along with the institute SETI listen to the radio on the subject of signals from stars from our nearby environment.
When Mendes’s team was looking at these results, they found something unusual: some strange, semi-repetitive signals from Ross 128. The signal had a frequency of about 5 GHz (currently widely used in WiFi networks - approx. Lane) right in the middle of a typical SETI search range in 1-15 GHz. The signal did not look local, since the Aresibo telescope did not detect such signals. For this reason, in July of this year, Arecibo, the SETI institute, the Allen antenna array, and the Green Bank radio telescope again looked for a signal from Ross 128.
None of the telescopes heard anything, and subsequent Breakthrough analysis listened to for publication in the International Journal of Astrobiology concluded that Mendez’s team most likely received a signal from one of the geostationary satellites.
Mendez said that the study of the environment of the star Ross 128 is "a good result of our research," as his team is particularly interested in the research of red dwarfs on their living conditions. His team plans to continue observing this system.
So Ross 128 b is potentially inhabited by the world, however, no signs of the existence of aliens have yet to find this moment. Nevertheless, this announcement is another reason to be interested in the construction of the Giant Magellanic telescope and the E-ELT (besides this, the Thirty Meter telescope was ultimately able to obtain a building permit about 1.5 months ago - approx. Lane). All three telescopes will have the opportunity to explore in detail such worlds as the Ross 128 b, bringing new knowledge to our ideas about earth-sized exoplanets like never before.
Exoplanet Ross 128 b in the view of the artist
European scientists announced this week the discovery of a planet orbiting the star Ross 128 close to us. The planet, named Ross 128 b , is estimated to have a temperature range that allows it to contain liquid water on the surface. Ross 128 b is currently the second closest planet to us after Proxima Centauri b located at a distance of 4.22 St. of the year. Xavier Bonfils , the lead author of the publication with which this discovery was announced, reports that the mass of the planet is close to 1.35 Earth masses.
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Thus, we are sure that Ross 128 b is a rocky planet - he says. “Unlike Proxima Centauri, the Ross 128 is considered“ quiet ”, so it emits significantly less radiation, which can harm the life we ​​know.
If this news is not interesting enough, it also has another side related to the SETI project aimed at finding extraterrestrial civilizations. Earlier this year, Ross 128 of the Planetary Community (the author of the original publication - approx. Lane) already made an announcement about this star, from which it seemed to be a semi-repetitive signal. The signal was later explained by noises from a geostationary satellite, but this announcement again returned to the game Ross 128 as a potentially habitable star system. This discovery will soon make this system a target for many observations, including the SETI radio telescopes.
“In the light of the new discovery, we are considering additional observations in the radio and optical range,” says Andrew Simion, director of the SETI research center at the University of California at Berkeley . “The nearest exoplanets are especially interesting from the point of view of SETI, since they allow us to search for and potentially detect much weaker signals than from more distant sources.
Habitability
The most important question: Is planet Ross 128 b habitable?
The star's habitability zone is the region of the distance to the star, in which liquid may exist on the surface of the planet. Depending on the temperature of the star, this region varies. In our solar system, this range is roughly between the orbits of Venus and Mars. But for colder stars, even planets closer to this region may contain liquid water.
Ross 128 b falls under this scenario. The parent star is a red dwarf , which means the smaller mass of the star and the temperature on its surface is almost two times lower than that of the Sun. Ross 128 b is 20 times closer to a star than Earth and it takes about 9.9 days to complete a full circle around its star. However, due to the lower temperature of the star, this should give the planet a temperature between -60 and 20 ° C. It is highly likely to place it in the habitable zone, but scientists cannot yet state this with certainty.
Just being in a habitable zone does not guarantee the Ross 128 b that it is actually habitable. Many planets in red dwarfs are in a tidal capture , which means that all such planets are always turned by one side to their star, which makes one side of the planet much hotter and the other cooler. And both of these states are not conducive to sustaining life.
In addition, solar flares from red dwarfs like Ross 128 and Proxima Centauri are a source of ultraviolet and x-ray radiation, which is detrimental to earthly life forms. However, since Ross 128 is a less active star than Proxima Centauri, it is now “the closest place for a comfortable stay of life,” according to data from the European Southern Observatory .
Opening
European scientists have found the Ross 128 b using the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher or HARPS - a 3.6-meter telescope at the Chilean observatory of La Silla , working on the separation of starlight into its frequency components. Exoplanets also attract their stars and cause them to oscillate slightly. This leads to small fluctuations in the stellar spectrum, and following these shifts, HARPS can detect the presence of planets orbiting this star. In this case, HARPS took data collection for about a decade to eventually discover Ross 128 b.
Being just 11 over. years, Ross 128 b is already our star neighbor, but it’s also interesting that this planet is going to visit us: the star is moving in our direction and will overtake Proxima Centauri in the rank of the nearest star after 79 thousand years.
The star Ross 128 is located near the Virgo constellation in the center right and highlighted in red
Red dwarfs and SETI
Cold and light red dwarfs are the most common type of stars - at least in sunny environments. In fact, it is easier to detect exoplanets near red dwarfs for the reason that they are dimmer (not one of them is visible from the earth with the naked eye), thereby not illuminating their surroundings with them. In addition to this, planets close to their star like the Ross 128 b are more visible, which makes them easier to search with tools like HARPS.
Red dwarfs are also a frequent target for a SETI project search, mostly because of their prevalence. Breakthrough Listen Yuri Milner along with the institute SETI listen to the radio on the subject of signals from stars from our nearby environment.
When Mendes’s team was looking at these results, they found something unusual: some strange, semi-repetitive signals from Ross 128. The signal had a frequency of about 5 GHz (currently widely used in WiFi networks - approx. Lane) right in the middle of a typical SETI search range in 1-15 GHz. The signal did not look local, since the Aresibo telescope did not detect such signals. For this reason, in July of this year, Arecibo, the SETI institute, the Allen antenna array, and the Green Bank radio telescope again looked for a signal from Ross 128.
None of the telescopes heard anything, and subsequent Breakthrough analysis listened to for publication in the International Journal of Astrobiology concluded that Mendez’s team most likely received a signal from one of the geostationary satellites.
Mendez said that the study of the environment of the star Ross 128 is "a good result of our research," as his team is particularly interested in the research of red dwarfs on their living conditions. His team plans to continue observing this system.
So Ross 128 b is potentially inhabited by the world, however, no signs of the existence of aliens have yet to find this moment. Nevertheless, this announcement is another reason to be interested in the construction of the Giant Magellanic telescope and the E-ELT (besides this, the Thirty Meter telescope was ultimately able to obtain a building permit about 1.5 months ago - approx. Lane). All three telescopes will have the opportunity to explore in detail such worlds as the Ross 128 b, bringing new knowledge to our ideas about earth-sized exoplanets like never before.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/374009/
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