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| By ESO/M. Kornmesser (https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1736a/) [CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Eleven light years away, orbiting a small, faint red dwarf, is the Earth-like planet Ross 128 b. The star, Ross 128, is one of the quietest stars in the solar neighborhood and is located in the Virgo constellation. Most red dwarfs are prone to flaring, which can blast nearby planets with lots of radiation, stripping away their atmospheres and making them uninhabitable. But Ross 128 b doesn’t flare very often, which makes any planets in its habitable zone candidates for hosting life.
The planet was detected by the HARPS instrument at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. It is the second-closest known Earth-size exoplanet and is calculated to have a minimum mass of 1.35 times the Earth. Ross 128 b orbits 20 times closer to its star than Earth orbits the Sun, but intercepts only 1.38 times more solar radiation than Earth, increasing the chance of retaining an atmosphere.
It's year (rotation period) lasts about 9.9 days and is most likely tidally locked, meaning one side of the planet has eternal daylight and the other eternal darkness.
As of 2017, Ross 128 b is the best candidate for a potentially habitable exoplanet, if it has an atmosphere and if it has the right chemical balance for life to thrive.
Would its inhabitants be like us? Or wildly different? What do you imagine they're like?
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12.12.2017
Meet the Neighbor... Ross 128 b. Another world close to our own #astronomy
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I suspect wildly different. I think it is a form of arrogance to think any other way.
ReplyDeleteI think the strangest discovery would be to find life just like us.
DeleteI don't think our human imaginations would be able to come up with what sort of life is out there. I love to think about it, though!
ReplyDeleteI like to think whatever we imagine exists somewhere.
DeleteI would think any inhabitants would be wildly different from us, especially those who live in perpetual darkness/light. It reminds me of P3X-797, which had a dark side and a light side in the Stargate SG-1 series (Season 1, Episode 5 "The Broca Divide").
ReplyDeleteI sincerely loved Stargate. Tidally locked planets may be more abundant than worlds like ours.
DeleteGreat post and info--food for thought.
ReplyDeleteMy mother never saw cell phones-telephones without land lines or the computer or holo technology or advance made in the 80' and 90's. My dad never saw holo tech and barely the emergence of computer but not in every home, never saw thin TV and digital everything .
What man can imagine can become reality, so why not similar or widely different life out there or both just like StarGate, Star Trek and Star Wars... Or some version of that no longer feels or is fiction. I may not live to see it, but one day. I love that thought.
I love that thought, too. It would be a marvel to see.
DeleteIt depends on the atmosphere. If it is similar to ours I would expect the aliens to look similar to us. If it is different I would expect a being totally different. Then there was that comment by Cherie Reich about beings living in total darkness or total light. Is it all dark? Or do they see shadows from the light side? Do they go on vacations from light to dark and dark to light? It's an interesting concept. Something that can set the mind aflame!
ReplyDeleteDifferent in lots of ways, but the same in a few ways!
ReplyDeleteHi Holly - I can't imagine another life like ours ... or travelling eleven light years to find out .. I do think the recent idea of going back to the moon after 45 of our years would be interesting ... to see what's happened since we left, and how the atmosphere up there has affected things left behind, purposefully or otherwise ... hope I get to see that - cheers and have a lovely Christmas season - Hilary
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