In the search for life on other planets, some promising clues have opened up.
The habitable zone around a star is the sweet spot between a planet being too hot or too cold to support life. To be in this zone, a planet would theoretically have to orbit a star at a distance where liquid water could exist on its surface.
“GJ 1002 is a red dwarf star with only one-eighth the mass of the Sun.” Astrophysicist Vera Maria Passenger says From Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), Spain. “This is a very cool, faint star, which means its habitability zone is very close to the star.”
We still have a long way to go to see alien life or running water, but GJ 1002b and GJ 1002c tick all the boxes so far. Astronomically speaking, we are in space.
Two space instruments – espresso (Echelle SPectrograph for rocky exoplanets and stable spectroscopic observations) and Carmenes (Carral Alto high-resolution search for M-type dwarfs using Exo-Earth with near-infrared and optical echelle spectrographs) – These had to be used in tandem to find stars and their planets.
This is because the faint light emitted by GJ 1002 required instruments with great sensitivity and precision to recognize its traces. The research team used his 139 spectroscopic observations (deep space radiation measurements) made between 2017 and 2021 to identify the planet.
So far, little is known about these objects, except where they are located. GJ 1002b is the closest to the star, orbiting her in just over 10 days. GJ 1002c is further out, with an orbit of just over 20 days.
The good news is that the relative proximity of GJ 1002b and GJ 1002c facilitates more detailed observations. The next step is to evaluate the atmosphere, either based on the light it reflects or the heat it emits.
“The future ANDES spectrograph for ESO’s ELT telescope, in which IAC participates, will be able to study the presence of oxygen in the atmosphere of GJ 1002c.” Astrophysicist Jonay I. Gonzalez Hernández said: From IAC.
In total, up to 5,000 exoplanets (extraterrestrial planets) have now been observed. As telescopes and data processing algorithms improve, smaller and farther objects can be found.
Thanks to these technological advances, we are getting closer to what we can do. Measuring the chemical signature of life For these distant planets, even though they are light years away through space.
“Nature seems to want to show us that planets like Earth are very common.” Astrophysicist Alejandro Suarez Mascareño says From IAC. “With these two, we found that there are seven in a planetary system fairly close to the sun.”
This research Astronomy and Astrophysics.