Another Earth? Maybe

| Read time: 3 minute(s)

Another Earth? Maybe Madrid What if we told you that there maybe another habitable planet in the Universe? Excited? This Earth-like planet is 31 light years away from us, and if we are able to study it, so many questions would be answered about evolution and alien life. The super-Earth planet -- named GJ 357 d -- was discovered earlier this year owing to NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The exoplanet is more massive than our own blue planet, and the discovery will provide insight into Earth's heavyweight planetary cousins. The planet, named GJ 357 d, is about six times larger than Earth and orbits a dwarf sun GJ 357, much smaller than our own, every 55.7 days. With a thick atmosphere, the planet GJ 357 d could maintain liquid water on its surface like Earth, and NASA could pick out signs of life with telescopes that will soon be online. Follow up observations from the ground lead to the discovery of two more planets orbiting the dwarf sun, including the super-Earth. Two of the planets discovered are considered too hot to support life as we know it, but GJ 357 d is in the host star's habitable zone, meaning it's not too hot or too cold. Fun fact The smallest, reddest galaxies, about 100, may be among the most distant known, existing when the universe was just 800 million years old. The nearest galaxies--the larger, brighter, well-defined spirals and ellipticals--thrived about 1 billion years ago, when the cosmos was 13 billion years old.

What if we told you that there maybe another habitable planet in the Universe? Excited? This Earth-like planet is 31 light years away from us, and if we are able to study it, so many questions would be answered about evolution and alien life.

The super-Earth planet — named GJ 357 d — was discovered earlier this year owing to NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).

The exoplanet is more massive than our own blue planet, and the discovery will provide insight into Earth’s heavyweight planetary cousins. The planet, named GJ 357 d, is about six times larger than Earth and orbits a dwarf sun GJ 357, much smaller than our own, every 55.7 days.

With a thick atmosphere, the planet GJ 357 d could maintain liquid water on its surface like Earth, and NASA could pick out signs of life with telescopes that will soon be online. 

Follow up observations from the ground lead to the discovery of two more planets orbiting the dwarf sun, including the super-Earth. Two of the planets discovered are considered too hot to support life as we know it, but GJ 357 d is in the host star’s habitable zone, meaning it’s not too hot or too cold.


Fun Fact

The smallest, reddest galaxies, about 100, may be among the most distant known, existing when the universe was just 800 million years old. The nearest galaxies--the larger, brighter, well-defined spirals and ellipticals--thrived about 1 billion years ago, when the cosmos was 13 billion years old.


Rate Now


Read to me