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A rocky planet with earth-like temperatures just 11 light-years was a sensation when it was discovered last year. Its proximity and its extraterrestrial life potential have made Ross a good candidate for further study, and scientists who continue to delve into this pocket of the universe continue to unravel its mysteries, new discoveries highlighting its terrestrial composition.
Ross 128B was discovered last November by researchers using the high precision Radial Velocity Planet Searcher from the European Southern Observatory in Chile. Their immediate findings describe a Earth-like world orbiting the red dwarf star Ross 128, about one twentieth of the distance between the Earth and our Sun.
Fortunately for Ross 128B, his parent star is much smaller and colder than ours, which means that despite its tight orbit, surface temperatures are somewhat order of -60 to 20 ° C (-76 to 68 ° F).
Another factor in favor of possible life forms is that this red dwarf seems relatively inactive when it comes to emitting solar flares that can strip the planets close to their atmospheres, which seriously harms the life chances of another. exoplanet of the Proxima type b.
This is thanks to the characteristics of the Ross 128 red dwarf that scientists continue to learn more about the Ross exoplanet 128. Scientists from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Michigan. National Observatório of Brazil performed the APOGEE spectroscopy of Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The team was able to deduce the concentrations of chemical elements such as carbon, oxygen, magnesium, aluminum, potassium, calcium. , titanium and iron in the star. The elements can provide clues to nearby rocky planets, because these bodies are formed from the gas and dust disks that revolve around the parent star in its early years, and the chemistry of the rocks. star is a factor in the composition of these records
by extension, this chemistry may have an impact on the composition of the planet's mineralogy, but it does not stop there. Because elements such as magnesium, iron and silicon in a planet influence the mass ratio of its core and mantle, star chemistry can also provide clues to its internal structure and its earthly aspect. . the iron levels of Ross 128 are similar to those of our Sun, and its ratio of iron to magnesium suggests that the core of the planet Ross 128b is larger than that of the Earth. The new discoveries also allowed the team to estimate the radius of the planet which, combined with temperature estimates, allowed it to determine the amount of light reflected from the surface, another indicator of climate .
"It's exciting to know what we can learn from another planet by determining what the light of its star host tells us about the chemistry of the system," said Souto's Diogo, the author principal of the Observatory. "Although Ross 128B is not the twin of the Earth, and we are still unaware of its potential geological activity, we have been able to reinforce the argument that it is a temperate planet that could potentially have the same effect." 39, liquid water on its surface. " 19659003] The research was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Source: Carnegie Mellon University
