A space telescope offers a rare glimpse of a rocky exoplanet the size of the Earth

(Reuters) – Direct observations from a NASA space telescope have revealed for the first time the atmospheric void of a rocky world the size of the Earth beyond our own solar system orbiting around of the most widespread star in the galaxy, according to a study published on Monday.

The research, published in the scientific journal Nature, also shows that the surface of the distant planet will likely resemble the barren exterior of the moon or mercury of the Earth, possibly covered with dark volcanic rocks.

The planet is about 48.6 light-years from Earth and is one of more than 4,000 so-called exoplanets identified in the past two decades surrounding distant stars in our home galaxy, the Milky Way.

Known as LHS 3844b, this exoplanet about 1.3 times larger than Earth is locked in a narrow orbit – a revolution every 11 hours – around a relatively cold little star called the red dwarf, the most widespread and longest lived star in the galaxy.

The planet's lack of atmosphere is probably due to intense radiation from its red dwarf, which, although less stellar than it is, also emits high levels of ultraviolet light, the study says.

The study will likely add to a debate among astronomers about whether the search for vital conditions beyond our solar system should focus on exoplanets around red dwarfs – representing 75% of all the stars in the Way Milky – or less common, bigger, warmer stars more like our own sun.

The main conclusion is that it probably has little or no atmosphere – a conclusion obtained by measuring the difference in temperature between the side of the planet that is still facing its star and the colder dark side who faces him.

A negligible amount of heat transported between the two sides indicates a lack of wind that would otherwise be present to transfer heat around the planet.

"The temperature contrast on this planet is about as large as possible," said researcher Laura Kreidberg of the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysics Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is the main author of the study.

A similar analysis has already been used to determine that another exoplanet, 55 Cancri e, about twice the size of the Earth and supposed to be half-covered with molten lava, probably has a thicker atmosphere than Earth's. This exoplanet, unlike LHS 3844b, revolves around a sun-like star.

The planet in which the latest study is located was detected last year by NASA's all-new Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, an in-orbiting telescope that tracks distant worlds by spotting periodic dives in the observed light of their stars. parents when an object passes in front of them.

But these are the subsequent observations of another instrument in orbit, the Spitzer Space Telescope, capable of detecting infrared light directly from an exoplanet, which has provided new information about its features.