A new Earth-like planet found in the vicinity of Earth

Planet Earth and the solar system are inquite densely populated area of ​​our galaxy. So, in one of our articles, we already wrote about the potential discovery of a huge number of planets, some of which can be considered, possibly, full-fledged inhabited worlds. At the same time, astronomers managed to find a new exoplanet slightly larger than the Earth, which revolves around a red dwarf at a distance of 66.5 light years from Earth. Can this discovery bring something new to modern science?

Can a new exoplanet be inhabited?

How many exoplanets are adjacent to Earth?

As can be known to most of ourReaders, at present, scientists have been able to detect more than 4100 exoplanets of various sizes, which sometimes have very incredible characteristics. Due to the fact that rocky exoplanets most often look like small and very dim objects even with the most powerful telescope, the dominant share among confirmed planets is giant planets and planets whose sizes are slightly larger than Neptune. Recently, the situation with the detection of solid planets has improved somewhat thanks to the missions of TESS and Kepler. According to the portal sсienсealert.com, astronomers have already been able to detect small exoplanets that have a mass of Earth and Venus, which, presumably, have a rocky surface.

See also: How will we seek life on distant exoplanets?

According to an international group of researchers fromInstitute of Astrophysics and Space Research. M.V. Cavli, such rocky planets are very difficult to analyze and characterize because most often they are located near relatively dim stars or red dwarfs, of which, by and large, is our galaxy. The discovered new exoplanet is no exception in this case: the object GJ 1252b orbiting the M-dwarf star was discovered by the TESS telescope from a distance of approximately 66.5 light years from our planet. Being 1.2 times larger than the Earth’s diameter and about twice the mass of our planet, the exoplanet revolves around a small star GJ 1252, which has about 40 percent of the mass and size of the Sun.

The year on the found exoplanet lasts only12.4 hours, which is a very negative indicator for the existence of potential life on its surface. In addition, due to its extremely close orbit, one of the sides of the GJ 1252b can be forever turned towards its star, which significantly worsens the already not very comfortable weather conditions of the distant alien world. Despite the many negative factors for the emergence of life, the GJ 1252b can be easily detected using a relatively powerful telescope. Due to the fact that the parent star shows a relatively calm and peaceful disposition, not distinguished by powerful flashes, and the exoplanet “runs through” the star’s disk every 12 hours, the scientific world will have all the possibilities to analyze the planet’s surface and atmosphere in the very near future using spectroscopic observations.

Star GJ 1252 - a typical red dwarf located in the vicinity of the solar system

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In addition to GJ 1252b, a large number of nearbyThe rocky worlds of scientists were also pleased with the TESS space telescope, which discovered the rocky exoplanets Pi Mensae c and LHS 3844 b, located 60 and 49 light years respectively. Researchers believe that the more rocky planets we can find and the more data we can collect about their structure and basic characteristics, the more chances humanity will have to find out if our Earth is something truly unique in space by standards, or is quite a common occurrence. If so, then the discovered exoplanet GJ 1252 b can be a great start to solve the issue so important for humanity.