NASA finds an Earth-Like planet just 31 light-years away and says that there are 2 more that are similar to that planet.
In case you guys are wondering how far are 31 light-years, one light-year is 9,500,000,000,000 kilometers away. So just multiply that number with 31.
NASA used TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) to find the planet.
NASA believes that the Earth-Like planet could possibly be habitable and could even support life.
The GJ 357 d, which is located 31 light-years away, is a planet that orbits around a star that is not too cold and not too hot, similar to our sun.
Researchers at NASA are currently trying to figure out if the atmosphere of GJ 357 d can accommodate liquid water.
Diana Kossakowski of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, said, “GJ 357 d is located within the outer edge of its star’s habitable zone, where it receives about the same amount of stellar energy from its star as Mars does from the Sun. If the planet has a dense atmosphere, which will take future studies to determine, it could trap enough heat to warm the planet and allow liquid water on its surface.”
Lisa Kaltnegger, an astronomy professor at Cornell University, said that the new plane could possibly host life.
She explained, “This is exciting, as this is humanity’s first nearby super-Earth that could harbor life – uncovered with help from Tess, our small, mighty mission with a huge reach. With a thick atmosphere, the planet GJ 357 d could maintain liquid water on its surface like Earth and we could pick out signs of life with upcoming telescopes soon to be online.”
The GJ 357 d rotates around its stars every 55.7 days and its sun is 40 percent cooler than our sun.
But the GJ 357 b, the nearest of the three planets that orbit the GJ 357 (their sun) is 22 percent larger than our planet and is called as “hot earth”.
Enric Palle, an astrophysicist at the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands, said, “We describe GJ 357 b as a ‘hot Earth’. Although it cannot host life, it is noteworthy as the third-nearest transiting exoplanet known to date and one of the best rocky planets we have for measuring the composition of any atmosphere it may possess.”