LHS 1140b Planet: A New Hope to Find Life Outside the Solar System!

We live in an amazing era, where scientists no longer have trouble detecting outer planets in the mysterious darkness of the night sky. but to find a world that might support life not as easy as that. That is why it is so interesting that researchers believe they have now found the best new candidate for signs of life outside our solar system: LHS1140b, a world slightly larger than Earth that is about 40 light years from Earth.

"This is the most interesting space planet I've seen in the last decade," said lead researcher Jason Dittmann of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "We can not hope for a better target of the planet to pursue one of the most important tasks in science, to look for evidence of extraterrestrial life," he added.

LHS 1140b is a giant ground planet (Super-Earth) that has a mass larger than that of Earth's mass, but less than ten times it. In this case, LHS 1140b has a mass seven times greater than the mass of the Earth, but its size is only 1.4 times the size of Earth. This makes the planet has a much higher planetary density, where it tends to have a solid iron core.

But what makes the LHS 1140b interesting is not just its size or its mass, but the fact that it orbits inside a habitable zone around its parent star, a bright red dwarf named LHS 1140 located in the constellation Cetus.

The LHS 1140b planet is actually 10 times closer to its parent star than the distance between the earth and the sun. But since the LHS 1140 star is also colder and brighter than the sun, this planet will not burn as a result of its proximity, it receives about half the radiation the Earth receives from the sun.

Nicolas Astudillo Devereux says, (team member and astronomer Observatory Geneva in Switzerland): "The current state of the red dwarf is perfect for the Orbiting Planet LHS 1140b is slower and sends radiation with high energy to lower levels than any other - the star of the same mass as him. "

This is important because the amount of heat and light coming from the star is not too hot for the planet, this allows the presence of liquid water inside the planet's surface which is very important for life as we know it, and to determine whether the planet is in one region habitable around its parent star (the temperate zone, the Goldilocks Zone).

The researchers discovered the LHS 1140b planet using the HARPS instrument inside the European Southern Observatory (ESO) at La Silla Observatory in Chile. Scientists estimate that the planet is about five billion years old and may not be as hot now. The possibility that his parent star might be more volatile when he is younger, and maybe he can release the LHS 1140b water atmosphere if he has it. However, the team hopes the planet has retained or regained its atmosphere, perhaps by collecting steam generated by the ocean of magma that may have flowed into the surface in the past.

To help verify this hypothesis, the team intends to continue to study the planet using the Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble Space Telescope is a very large and LSST Very Large Telescope special European Southern Observatory ESO, which is scheduled for completion in 2024.

Of course, it is not the only distant world that has attracted the attention of astronomers. recently, scientists have also announced the discovery of the atmosphere around another giant planet Earth called Gliese 1132b.

Gliese 1132b lies at the same distance from Earth into the LHS 1140b planet, about 39 light-years away, but as I said, says Fiona MacDonald, the fact that distant outer planets provide promising signs of being habitable, this is not a confirmation that until we learn more - not a guide To the ultimate goal, we are really looking for ... Space Life.

He said: "Let us not forget the frustration that we feel after the discovery of the Turbbast-1 system of Trappist-1" brothers of the solar system "and the planets Proxima B are close - like earth, where it finds later that it does maybe two suitable places for life as we thought In the beginning. "

But wait, nobody said it would be that easy, right? What we now know is that LHS 1140b sends us all the right signs to justify a more serious investigation. For now, this is what the space-loving people can hope for.

He said two of the team members, Xavier Delfosse and Xavier Bonfils of the French National Center for Scientific Research "system LHS 1140 can a more important goal for the future description of the planet in a habitable area like ​​the planet Proxima B or System Trappist -1.That year is great for the discovery of outer planets. "

Reference :

1. http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/welcome-lhs-1140b-super-earth-habitable-zone/
2. https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/19/15344614/super-earth-habitable-lhs-1140b-planet-red-dwarf
3. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/newfound-super-earth-boosts-search-for-alien-life/
4. https://www.astrobio.net/alien-life/two-suns-could-make-more-habitable-moons/

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