Wolf 1069b is the Newfound Planet That Could Host Life Just ‘Next-Door’ to Earth

Wolf 1069b is the Newfound Planet That Could Host Life Just ‘Next-Door’ to Earth
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Ah, the million-dollar question! How many exoplanets capable of supporting life are out there? Well, let’s see… if we take into account the number of stars in the observable universe (which is a whopping 2 trillion), and assume that each star has a planetary system, and each system has a few potentially habitable planets… then, drumroll please… the answer is… drumroll continues… a whole lot!

But in all seriousness, the answer is, we don’t really know. We’ve only confirmed the existence of a handful of exoplanets that are in the habitable zone of their star (meaning they are in a region where temperatures are just right for liquid water to exist on their surface), but there could be many more out there just waiting for us to discover them.

Wolf 1069b is located just 31 light-years away from Earth

The newfound Wolf 1069b exoplanet orbits the Wolf 1069 red dwarf only 31 light-years away from Earth. Furthermore, the planet is located at the right distance from its host star in order to allow the formation of water to potentially occur. That means that there is some undeniable potential there for alien life to dwell as well, in some form or another. 

Diana Kossakowski, a scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), who led the research team responsible for the new discovery, explained:

When we analyzed the data of the star Wolf 1069, we discovered a clear, low-amplitude signal of what appears to be a planet of roughly Earth mass,

It orbits the star within 15.6 days at a distance equivalent to one-fifteenth of the separation between the Earth and the Sun.

Now, some folks like to get all excited about the possibility of finding aliens and making contact with extraterrestrial life. But let’s be real; those aliens are probably out there living their best lives, and the last thing they want is a bunch of humans showing up and messing things up for them.

So, in conclusion, the number of exoplanets capable of supporting life is somewhere between a whole lot and who knows. But one thing’s for sure, the search for a new home for humanity is definitely on!

You can find the new study in Astronomy & Astrophysics


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Even since he was a child, Cristian was staring curiously at the stars, wondering about the Universe and our place in it. Today he's seeing his dream come true by writing about the latest news in astronomy. Cristian is also glad to be covering health and other science topics, having significant experience in writing about such fields.

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