The quest to resettle humans on another planet, outside the Earth, to ensure that our species doesn't get wiped out is a very old one, but with little to no success so far. This is because most planets known to us are either too far or are inhospitable. That could soon change as scientists have discovered a new planet that they say may be able to support human life.
The extrasolar planet, or "exoplanet," named Gliese 12 b, was discovered using NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and many other facilities, by two international teams of astronomers. According to the scientists, Gliese 12 b is about the size of Earth, sits remarkably close to our solar system, and could be comfortable for life as we know it.
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"The host star, called Gliese 12, is a cool red dwarf located almost 40 light-years away in the constellation Pisces. The star is only about 27% of the Sun’s size, with about 60% of the Sun’s surface temperature. The newly discovered world, named Gliese 12 b, orbits every 12.8 days and is Earth-sized or slightly smaller — comparable to Venus. Assuming it has no atmosphere, the planet has a surface temperature estimated at around 42 degrees Celsius," NASA said.
“We’ve found the nearest, transiting, temperate, Earth-sized world located to date,” said Masayuki Kuzuhara, a project assistant professor at the Astrobiology Center in Tokyo, who co-led the research. “Although we don’t yet know whether it possesses an atmosphere, we’ve been thinking of it as an exo-Venus, with similar size and energy received from its star as our planetary neighbour in the solar system,” he said.
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Scientists spotted Gliese 12 b as it crossed, or "transited," the face of its parent red dwarf star. These transits cause tiny dips in light that TESS is adept at spotting.
"The majorly interesting thing is that this is a planet that's really nearby; in fact, it's one of the closest transiting planets to Earth. It's either in the habitable zone of its star or it is right on the edge of it — so, it could be habitable," University College London scientist Larissa Palethorpe, who co-led the research, said.
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