Scientists are studying the possibility of the existence of life effects on a distant planet

A study published in the prestigious journal Science revealed the discovery of a new distant planet that seems ideal for searching for an atmosphere and traces of life around a star outside our solar system. José A. Caballero, who is one of the authors of the study, to which researchers from five continents have contributed, to Agence France-Presse, that “the ultimate goal is to find biological signs, and fingerprints vital digitals, in the atmosphere of exoplanets, that is to say, signs of life on habitable planets similar to Earth. “
The number of exoplanets discovered outside the solar system over the past twenty-five years is four thousand, but so far only a small number of them have an atmosphere. Caballero explained that “these were large gaseous or icy planets”, but that no research had yet been carried out on “planets the size of Earth”.
The discovery of these planets allowed the researchers to conduct a study on an exoplanet “rocky in nature like the Earth”, and which could have an atmosphere “similar to ours”, explains Caballero. He added: “We believe this outer planet has an atmosphere.” This exoplanet was called Glies 486b, it is about 30% larger than Earth, but 2.8 times heavier, and is located in the so-called habitable zone around a star.
The planet is “only” 26 light years away, making it the third closest exoplanet in transit among the outer planets that scientists know of. A transitory adjective means that she is on a path seen passing in front of her star. The researchers used two different methods to find it: the first is to observe the evolution of the light emitted by the star as the planet passes in front of it, and the other is the radial speed which measures the “vibrations” of the star. star under this due to the effect of the planet’s gravity.
And because Gliese 486b is so close to its star, it takes less than a day and a half to orbit around it. In addition, the star (called Glies 486) is extremely bright. These two factors made it possible to obtain a lot of data, and therefore to study them with such precision. “We looked at 350 red dwarf stars for signs of small planets,” said lead author of the study, researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Trifon Trifonov.