The search for life in space is occupied by researchers, film makers and fantasists for quite some time.
Now astronomers have discovered a hopeful planet.
In the constellation whale, an exoplanet draws its circles, which is currently electrifying American scientists.
It is 1.5 times as large as our earth and almost seven times as massive.
Harvard-Smithsonian scientists have discovered it, and are certain that there could be life.
“This is the most exciting planet I have ever seen in the last decades,” comments Mitentdecker Jason Dittmann from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
He and his colleagues are now looking for molecular oxygen and more importantly, for water, without which no life seems conceivable.
Now it is not quite trivial to search for an atmosphere for 40 light years. But there are already preliminary indications, as the researchers in the journal Nature write.
Thus, the planet orbits its dwarfs every 25 days, so the orbit is located in a habitable zone where water can theoretically occur.
What does not mean, however, that there is water there?
In addition, the planet is regularly viewed from the Earth in front of its star and is illuminated by it.
And here comes the technology in the game: in the investigation of the planet, namely, the latest space telescopes are needed.
The James Webb space telescope, for example, which is scheduled to be operational in 2018, could allow conclusions to be drawn from what the potential airspace of the planet is based on such a constellation.
If they exist!
One of many exoplanets?
Do you still have Proxima Centauri b and Kepler 1229 b in your head and keep it for cold coffee?
In fact, science knows about 30 planets on which potential life would be possible.
There is even a catalog that lists such potentially inhabitable planets and makes a note of every new discovery meticulously.
But the newly esteemed planet from the constellation of whale fish is the most promising candidate for life in space.