• 2 months ago
Astronomers have found three planets that might be just right for life! These planets are in the “habitable zone” around their stars, meaning they could have the right temperatures for liquid water, which is super important for life. They’re not too hot and not too cold – kind of like Earth. Scientists are really excited because finding planets with the right conditions is a big step towards discovering alien life. Who knows? These planets might have their own versions of us out there! Credit:
planet GJ 1214 b: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC), https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-webb-takes-closest-look-yet-at-mysterious-planet
Proxima b 3D Model: NASA Visualization Technology Applications and Development (VTAD), https://science.nasa.gov/resource/proxima-b-3d-model/
CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0:
Habitable Zone: By ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser - https://esahubble.org/videos/hubblecast97b/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Habitable_Zone_(artist%E2%80%99s_impression).webm
The HARPS spectrograph: By ESO, https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0308b/
Drone flight over La Silla: By ESO/ Liam Young, https://www.eso.org/public/videos/lasilla-droneaerial2015a/
La Silla control room: By Alexandre Santerne (Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, Universidade do Porto) / Planetário do Porto - Centro Ciência Viva/ESO, https://www.eso.org/public/videos/santerne_2016-01-12/
ESO 3.6-metre telescope: By ESO, https://www.eso.org/public/videos/uhd_lasilla7_2014/
radial velocity method: By ESO/H. Zodet, https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso0915g/
HD 10180: By ESO/A. Fujii/Digitized Sky Survey 2. Music: John Dyson, https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1035f/
The HARPS instrument: By ESO, https://www.eso.org/public/videos/lasilla-harps2/
Planets everywhere: By ESO/M. Kornmesser, https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1204a/
Gliese 667 Cc sunset: By ESO/L. Calçada - https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1214a/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21693141
GJ1214b: By ESO/L. Calçada, https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso0950a/
GJ 1214b: By ESO/L. Calçada, https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1047a/
planet orbiting Proxima Centauri: By ESO/M. Kornmesser, https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1629b/
Proxima Centauri b: By ESO/Konstantino Polizois/Nico Bartmann. Music: Konstantino Polizois, https://www.eso.org/public/videos/konstantino_polizois/
TRAPPIST-1b: By ESO/L. Calçada/spaceengine.org, https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1706i/
Planet orbiting: By ESA/Hubble (M. Kornmesser), https://esahubble.org/videos/hubblecast52e/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Planet_orbiting_a_red_dwarf_star_(artist%27s_impression).webm
Ross 128 planetary system: By ESO/M. Kornmesser - https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1736c/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flying_through_the_Ross_128_planetary_system.webm
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00:00Very recently, astronomers have found three potential super-Earth planets orbiting a somewhat
00:06close orange dwarf star.
00:08The term super-Earth is used to describe a planet beyond the Solar System with a mass
00:13higher than that of Earth but below those of the ice giants of the Solar System, Uranus
00:18and Neptune.
00:20An international team of researchers, led by Dr. Shweta Dalal from the University of
00:25Exeter, found that the exoplanets were orbiting star HD 48498, which is located around 55
00:32light-years away from Earth.
00:34The planets travel around their star in 7, 38, and 151 Earth days, respectively.
00:41The study describing these findings appeared in the journal Minraths on 24 June 2024.
00:47The coolest thing here is that the outermost exoplanet candidate orbits in the habitable
00:52zone of its host star, and the conditions there might be comfortable enough for liquid
00:57water to exist on the surface without boiling or freezing.
01:01Such habitable regions around stars are also known as the Goldilocks zone and are believed
01:07to be ideal for potentially supporting life.
01:10Another reason this discovery is so important is that the orange host star is like our Sun,
01:16but since it's an orange dwarf, it produces less radiation than our yellow dwarf star.
01:21It's also the closest planetary system to host a super-Earth in the habitable zone of
01:26a Sun-like star, which makes this discovery super exciting.
01:30It can help us move forward in our quest to locate habitable planets around solar-type
01:35stars.
01:36Who knows, maybe this planet will be our new home one day!
01:41These potential super-Earths were detected thanks to the HARPS and Rocky Planet search
01:45program.
01:47Throughout a decade, the team taking part in this research has collected nearly 190
01:52high-precision measurements using special equipment.
01:55By analyzing the spectrum of light coming from a star, astronomers can figure out whether
02:00it's moving toward us – this is known as blue shift – or away from us – that's
02:04what we call red shift.
02:07And still, to make sure their findings were correct, the team used lots of different methods
02:11and comparative analysis.
02:13Everything confirmed their conclusions.
02:16Here indeed are three planetary candidates with minimum masses ranging from 5 to 11 times
02:22the mass of our home planet.
02:24The team also believes that the proximity of the star, together with the outermost planet's
02:29favorable orbit, can make this system a great target for future studies.
02:33Hopefully, further research will open doors for our understanding of planetary systems
02:39and the potential of life outside our solar system.
02:43Astronomers have already discovered more than 5,000 exoplanets, which are planets outside
02:48the solar system, since the first such world was confirmed orbiting a Sun-like star in
02:531995.
02:54To find those distant planets, astronomers used different equipment, like NASA's Kepler
03:00Space Telescope, launched in 2009.
03:03Its mission was to find as many Earth-like planets dwelling in the Milky Way galaxy as
03:07possible.
03:08But it's not the only instrument used for searching exoplanets.
03:12Anyway, now let's look at the most exciting and promising of these worlds.
03:18Gali 667 cc is a mere 22 light-years from Earth.
03:23But even though it seems close, it's still around 129 trillion miles away from us.
03:29The planet itself is around 3.8 times as massive as Earth and completes one orbit around its
03:34host star within 28 days.
03:37In other words, a year on that Earth-like planet is 13 times shorter than a year on
03:42our planet.
03:43Luckily, the star is a cool red dwarf, so the exoplanet most likely lies in its habitable
03:49zone.
03:50But there's still a chance that this world might be regularly baked by the flares coming
03:54from its parent star.
03:56Which is not cool on many different levels.
04:00Kepler-22b is way further away than the previous world, more than 600 light-years away from
04:06our planet.
04:07It was the very first Kepler planet found in the habitable zone of its star.
04:12This world is larger than Earth, it's about 2.4 times our planet's size.
04:16Sadly, we still don't know whether this planet is rocky, liquid, or gaseous.
04:21The orbit of Kepler-22b is similar to Earth's.
04:24It takes the planet 290 days to orbit its G-class star, which is kind of like our Sun.
04:30But this star is smaller and colder than ours.
04:34Another Kepler planet, this time it's Kepler-69c.
04:38It lies a whopping 2,700 light-years away from us.
04:43This world is also almost 70% larger than Earth.
04:47Researchers know nothing about its composition.
04:50But they found out that the planet needs 240 days to complete one orbit.
04:54This makes its position in its system like that of Venus in our Solar System.
04:59At the same time, this world might be more habitable than Venus since its host star is
05:04a bit less luminous, 80% of our Sun.
05:09TOI-733b is a recently discovered world.
05:13It was found in 2023.
05:15It's out there, 245 light-years away from Earth, and needs just 4.9 Earth days to complete
05:21an orbit around its star.
05:23But the coolest thing about this planet is that it might have a massive ocean.
05:28According to scientists, the planet is likely to be completely covered with water.
05:32Does that mean there could be life on this super-Earth?
05:35Time will tell.
05:38GJ-1214b is located 48 light-years from Earth.
05:42This planet is a super-Earth, almost 3 times bigger in diameter and 8 times heavier than
05:47our home.
05:48It orbits around its red dwarf star faster than you can binge-watch your favorite series,
05:53finishing a complete loop every 38 hours.
05:56But it's not just the planet's size or orbit that's out of this world.
06:01It's pretty hot out there, with mine melting 450°F.
06:06But the coolest thing is that this planet is practically drowning in water.
06:10The sizzling temperatures and crazy high pressures on JG-1214b create some cool materials like
06:17hot ice and superfluid water.
06:22Superfluidity is something that happens in liquid helium when it's almost as cold as
06:25it can get.
06:26On Earth, water totally missed the memo about being superfluid because it needs ridiculously
06:32low temperatures and off-the-chart pressures to pull off that trick.
06:35Still, there's not much use in superfluid water.
06:38Even if you try it, you'll just get dehydrated.
06:42The super-Earth that's closest to us was discovered in 2016 and is called Proxima Centauri b.
06:49It's located a mere 4 light-years away from Earth and has a mass remarkably similar to
06:54that of our planet.
06:55A year on Proxima Centauri b is short.
06:58It only takes the planet 11.2 days to complete a circle around its central star.
07:04Scientists discovered this world after they noticed that its parent star was slightly
07:08wobbling.
07:09They hadn't been sure what exactly had been happening there until they realized Proxima
07:14Centauri b's gravity probably produced pulls and tugs that caused these wobbles.
07:19Although the exoplanet is traveling in the habitable zone of its star, Proxima Centauri,
07:24it is exposed to extreme ultraviolet radiation, all because it lies very close to its parent
07:30star.
07:31Also, none of the telescopes that are currently working and exploring exoplanets are positioned
07:36well enough to capture the light from the atmosphere of this super-Earth.
07:41Most things there are still a mystery to us, even though we're talking about a planet
07:45that's really close.
07:48Earth TOI-715b orbits a red dwarf, a star smaller and cooler than our Sun.
07:55At the moment, such stars remain prime candidates for finding habitable planets orbiting them.
08:01Those miniature rocky worlds have far closer orbits than those circling around stars like
08:05our Sun.
08:06But since red dwarfs are small and cool, the planets don't risk anything when crowding
08:11closer.
08:12They're still safely within a star's habitable zone.
08:16Scientists say that TOI-715b might have once had an atmosphere thicker than that of Neptune.
08:22And now, the planet could be in a transition state where it's losing its atmosphere.
08:27To confirm this suspicion, scientists need to do more research, and they might finally
08:31learn whether this planet is a watery terrestrial planet.
08:35That's it for today, so hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like
08:41and share it with your friends!
08:42Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!

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