In a groundbreaking astronomical breakthrough, scientists have announced the discovery of Gliese 12 b, a temperate, Earth-sized exoplanet just 40 light-years away. This discovery holds the promise of unlocking the secrets behind what makes a planet truly habitable, paving the way for the quest to find extraterrestrial life.
A Habitable Contender
Gliese 12 b is a discovery of exciting proportions, due in part to its size and the location of the planet. With a similar size of Earth, the exoplanet provides the possibility of containing an environmental whole planet something like what is found on this planet.
Particularly intriguing is the location of Gliese 12 b near the inner edge of its host star, Gliese 12’s habitable zone. The habitable zone, also known as the ‘Goldilocks zone,’ is the range where conditions are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water — essential for life. This puts the upcoming discovery on the brink of the so-called habitable zone, where water is a crucial requirement for any life that might exist within it and therefore brings scientists one more step closer in their quest to find possibly Earth-like planets and eventually other civilizations.
The Diam ‘Starshot,’ Unlocking the Secrets of Planetary Habitability
Gliese 12 b is a mere 7.6-million miles (4.5-million km) from its star, and the planet orbits Gliese 12 with a period of 33 hours — rather as Mercury circles our sun in just 88 days.Source A few Earths out there? One such method not used with this non-transiting planet is atmospheric transmission spectroscopy, which examines the starlight that pierces the planet’s atmosphere during transit.
Variations in the light’s spectra will provide insights into what Gliese 12 b’s atmosphere is made of, singling out gases like oxygen, water vapor methane and carbon dioxide that might hint at life-related processes. This will be important to pin down the differences between an Earth and Venus, ultimately providing a guide of what it takes for a world to become truly habitable.
Conclusion
The Gliese 12 b find also represents a noteworthy advancement in the search for Earthlike planets—and hence, possibly alien life. As we keep reaching out to the stars, solving numerous questions that lead us closer to resolving the ultimate question of thousands of years: are we alone in the universe? Though we will need more observations and modeling to paint a full picture of the nature behind this exoplanet, Gliese 12 b serves as a lighthouse that beckons us toward some of the many unknowns masked by those systems in our galaxy apart from sol.
