Two “super-Earths” planets discovered – one that could host life

Two Earth-like planets have been identified, one of which could provide the necessary conditions for life to thrive.

The two exoplanets, LP 890-9b and LP 890-9c, were discovered 100 light-years away, orbiting the star LP 890-9 – and have since been dubbed “super-Earths” for their similarity to our home planet, albeit somewhat more Magnitude.

Building on previous findings from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey (TESS) satellite, researchers at the University of Birmingham in the UK used their SPECULOOS telescope – which stands for “the search for habitable planets obscuring ULtra-cOOl stars” – to confirm the validity of these two Monday. planets.

Of course, scientists turn to our place in the solar system when looking for factors that contribute to life, such as the size of an exoplanet and its distance from its host star, as well as the size and temperature of that star.

Exoplanet science professor Amaury Triaud, whose SPECULOOS team recently confirmed the existence of LP 890-9c, as well as the habitability of the sister planet, said. Their work is forthcoming in the Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, to me University press release.

Its star, also called TOI-4306, or SPECULOOS-2, is the second-coolest star known to host planets – behind TRAPPIST-1, which has seven Earth-sized planets. It is believed that such stars, including our sun Best for life care on the planets orbiting around it – because the higher the combustion temperature, the more difficult it is for life to survive.

This also makes it more difficult to detect.

“TESS searches for exoplanets using the transit method, by observing the brightness of thousands of stars simultaneously, and looking for slight dimming that may be caused by planets passing in front of their stars,” The report’s lead author, Laetitia Delreese, said:, a researcher at the University of Liège contributed to the findings. Delrez explained that “following up with ground-based telescopes” can help find what TESS is missing due to its limited sensitivity to light in the near-infrared range, which is emitted by cooler stars, including LP 890-9.

The researchers provided more details about the viability of planetary LP-890-9. Scientists said its closest satellite, LP 890-9b, is about 30% larger than Earth, and completes its orbit in 2.7 days — too fast to sustain life.

But the system’s exoplanet, LP 890-9c, 40% larger than Earth, orbits about 8.5 days, putting it in a “habitable zone” – often referred to as the “Goldilocks region” – relative to its star.

LP 890-9c as well as the TRAPPIST-1 planets will be the most preferred SPECULOOS telescope targets for upcoming analysis, according to Triaud, who was involved in discovering both systems.

“It is important to discover as many temperate terrestrial worlds as possible to study the diversity of exoplanet climates and ultimately be in a position to gauge how frequently biology appears in the universe,” he said.