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A exoplanet has been discovered (paywalled) that is called "LHS 1140b" and it's deemed a super earth. It lies in the Goldilocks zone where water is in an accessible fluid phase. The atmosphere, however, also plays a critical role, as can be demonstrated with the planet Venus. Seven exoplanets had been found two months ago orbiting TRAPPIST-1, but LHS 1140b is deemed exceptional. Jason Dittmann, an astronomer at Harvard University that lead the research group, says it's the most interesting exoplanet he has seen in the past decade. In contrast with the TRAPPIST-1 star, LHS 1140 spins slowly and does not emit much high-energy radiation, which may also help the likelihood of life on its planet.
The planet is circa 5*10^9 years old, 500*10^6 years older than Earth. The diameter is 40% larger, the mass 6.6 times that of Earth, and gravity is 3.4 times that of Earth.
The first exoplanet was discovered in 1995 and since then at least 2000 has been discovered.
Many more details are available in a research letter (pdf).
(Score: 4, Informative) by stormwyrm on Saturday April 22 2017, @05:51AM (2 children)
At that mass, it’s more probable that it looks more like Neptune rather than Earth [forbes.com]. The transition from being a rocky world like Earth to a gaseous one like Neptune occurs at just twice the Earth’s mass:
If you’re more that twice the mass of Earth and you receive the same amount of energy from your star, you’ll be able to hold onto a substantial hydrogen-and-helium envelope of gas, creating an atmospheric pressure that’s hundreds or even thousands of times as great as what we have on Earth’s surface.
Earth and Venus are just about at the high end of rocky planets [forbes.com]. Something less than 2 to about 0.6 earth masses either way is rocky. Something from 2 to 130 earth masses is something more like Neptune or Uranus. Something from 130 to 8% of the sun’s mass is more like Jupiter, and anything above 8% of the sun’s mass will be massive enough to ignite nuclear fusion and become a star unto itself.
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Ramze on Saturday April 22 2017, @07:27AM (1 child)
I do agree that with that sort of gravity, it's very likely that the atmosphere is very dense -- probably very like Venus in density.... but it's hard to say. Venus is smaller than Earth, but has a much denser atmosphere... which means Earth could support an even denser atmosphere than Venus! Yet, ours is fine. This new planet could probably support an incredibly dense atmosphere, but that doesn't mean it has to be that way.
Either way, the surface gravity is expected to be 3.4 times Earth gravity... which means humans won't be able to live there unless they're Olympic weightlifters.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday April 22 2017, @07:53PM
Perhaps the capture of the moon had something to do with thinning the atmosphere? It does seem like the atmosphere should be a lot thicker unless something stripped a lot of it away.
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