How to Search for Life on Alien Planets | LifesLittleMysteries.com.
This artist’s impression shows the planet HD 85512b orbiting the Sun-like star HD 85512 about 35 light-years from Earth. This planet is about 3.6 times as massive as the Earth is at the edge of the habitable zone around the star, where liquid water, and perhaps even life, could potentially exist. CREDIT: ESO/M. Kornmesser
From the article:
Earlier this week, astronomers announced that they had discovered more than 50 new extra-solar planets, and 16 of these alien worlds have been classified as so-called super-Earths. One of the super-Earths, dubbed HD 85512b, has excited astronomers the world over because it sits at the edge of its parent star’s habitable zone, suggesting favorable conditions that could support life.
But why is this planet’s particular position so important for life? And if there is life on HD 85512b , how might astronomers go about confirming its existence?
Newfound Alien Planet is Best Candidate Yet to Support Life, Scientists Say – Yahoo! News.
From the article:
A potentially habitable alien planet — one that scientists say is the best candidate yet to harbor water, and possibly even life, on its surface — has been found around a nearby star.
The planet is located in the habitable zone of its host star, which is a narrow circumstellar region where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on the planet’s surface.
“It’s the Holy Grail of exoplanet research to find a planet around a star orbiting at the right distance so it’s not too close where it would lose all its water and boil away, and not too far where it would all freeze,” Steven Vogt, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told SPACE.com. “It’s right smack in the habitable zone — there’s no question or discussion about it. It’s not on the edge, it’s right in there.”
Click the links to read more. Hope there’s more study, and maybe, maybe in the future we can find out if we are or are not alone in this universe.
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