Super-Earth Could Support Life, Scientists Say
From the archive: published Sep 13, 2011, 15 years ago. Details may have changed since.
If Canada isn’t far enough away from the Tea Party for you to comfortably set up residence, take heart- scientists have located a planet they believe can support human life, the Associated Press reports.
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has discovered a few “Super-Earths” using their exoplanet-hunting telescope- 16 of the planets to be precise, among 50 alien planets. But one of the planets in particular, the unassumingly named HD 85512 b, has some Earth-like qualities that indicate we can one day shove an American flag in its soil and start pumping SUV emissions into its atmosphere.
HD 855512 b- which sounds remarkably like a new TV model- like Earth, orbits its star in what’s known as the “habitable zone,” an area in which water can hang around as a liquid without freezing or turning to steam.
In a statement, HARPS [High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher instrument] team leader Michel Mayor of the University of Geneva said:
“The harvest of discoveries from HARPS has exceeded all expectations and includes an exceptionally rich population of super-Earths and Neptune-type planets hosted by stars very similar to our sun. And even better — the new results show that the pace of discovery is accelerating.”
Exoplanet habitability expert Lisa Kaltenegger commented to press about the significance of the discovery:
“I think we’re in for an incredibly exciting time. We’re not just going out there to discover new continents- we’re actually going out there to discover brand new worlds.”
The new Super-Earth is also spacious- about 3.6 times the size of actual Earth.