Spain has a lot to say in the search for potentially habitable explanets. On this occasion, an international team led by researchers from the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC) has discovered a planet in the habitable zone of its star, just 59 light years from Earth.
The finding. The newly discovered planet is called GJ 3998 d. It is a superstierra, which means that it is significantly larger than our planet, in this case with a mass six times greater than land.
The important thing about GJ 3998 d is that orbits its star Within the “habitable zone”which means that it could have liquid water on its surface, whenever it is a rocky planet like ours.
The habitable area. This new exoplanet orbit the GJ 3998which is a red dwarf. This type of star is much smaller and colder than the sun, so the habitable zone is at a lesser distance.
GJ 3998 D completes an orbit around its star in approximately 42 days, a sixth part of what lasts a land year. Despite the proximity to the red dwarf, it only receives 20 % more radiation than the earth, which makes it a candidate to house the necessary conditions for life.
Neighbors. Another point in favor of this new extrasolar planet is that it is relatively close to us, 59 light years away, which makes it a perfect candidate for more detailed studies in the future.
Scientists plan to investigate whether GJ 3998 D has atmosphere and if there are signs of oxygen, which would be a strong indicator of the possible existence of extraterrestrial life. But for this they will have to wait for the future spectrograph Andes of the Extremely large telescope (Elt) of that, who will be able to analyze the composition of his atmosphere. Or to the telescope Exo Life Finder (ELF), currently in development by the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands.
A red dwarf galaxy. Red dwarfs are particularly interesting because they are very common in our galaxy. They constitute almost three quarters of all known stars. In addition, its low mass facilitates the detection of planets that orbit around it. GJ 3998 has three known planets: GJ 3998 B, GJ 3998 Cy the newly discovered GJ 3998 d.
This discovery was possible thanks to the Hades project, an international initiative that uses the Nazionale Galileo telescope (TNG) at the Rocque de los Muchachos Observatory, in La Palma, to look for planets around small and near stars.
Image | Gabriel Pérez Díaz (SMM, IAC)
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