First Atmosphere Found on Earth-like Planet LHS 1140b in Habitable Zone
First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star
Researchers have detected the first atmosphere around LHS 1140b, a rocky planet orbiting within the habitable zone of a distant red star. While the identified gas is helium and cannot support life, this discovery marks a crucial step toward finding worlds with conditions similar to Earth. It brings us closer to answering the big question of whether we are alone in the universe.
This is the first time anyone has found an atmosphere on a rocky planet in the habitable zone of another star.
- tulio_ribeiro
Didn't know a rocky planet in the habitable zone of a red dwarf could retain atmosphere against intense stellar stripping.
Red dwarfs are known to be cooler (the habitable zone is therefore closer) and unstable.
I don't think LHS 1140b is "Earth-like" at all. Rather, it's more like a mini-Neptune, being boiled off by its star.
Edit: JWST emission spectroscopy of LHS 1140b as it passes behind its star rules out a mini-Neptune. https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.15136
- mekdoonggi
We should build a solar lens telescope. By the time we're ready to use it, we'll have a bunch of candidates to point it at.
- jimbokun
48 light years is in our back yard.
Close enough that we could probably develop a probe to get there in the next few centuries and check it out. What are the current popular candidates for propulsion systems capable of accelerating to near the speed of light?
- smb06
I feel like I've been hearing about atmosphere on Earth-like planets for a while. Or maybe I've missed some nuance.
- quotemstr
Keep in mind that Venus is also an Earth-like planet with an atmosphere in the habitable zone of a sun-like star.
- kevthecoder
Related/dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48939742 (45 comments)
- tsoukase
I think we should focus at the solution of Fermi paradox, especially the short time window factor. Life on earth evolved for billions of years, while one of it's creatures is capable to receive/send messages to space for only 50. That leads to a factor of billions/50 reduction at the calculated probability of alien life discovery. Multiply that with another billions/xxx at the receiver side, if they are similarly able to communicate for only a few centuries at best. I assume you agree that our and their evolution are independent.
So the new probability becomes quite low, which fits with our (non-)observation of alien life. We might not be alone, but we are far away and very short lived.
- lucastamoios
> The gas detected in the atmosphere is helium, which would not be able to support life, but other gasses may also be present.
Yeah, but not that much.
- nobody9999
Underlying paper from Science[0]
[0] https://www.science.org/content/article/astronomers-spot-fir...
- waynecochran
| The gas detected in the atmosphere is helium
The planet must have an enormous escape velocity to contain helium in its atmosphere. If there is life there they are stuck.