\u201cKnowing that there is life not just on other planets here but [also] around other stars, that would be very, very important,\u201d Blazek said. \u201cWe want to understand where we came from and whether we\u2019re alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scientists have discovered 6,107 exoplanets to date, mostly in a relatively small section of the Milky Way, the galaxy that Earth and the Solar System sit in, according to NASA. The closest known exoplanet to Earth is Proxima Centauri b, which is still close to four light-years away, approximately 23.5 trillion miles or 37.8 trillion kilometers away.<\/p>\n
![\"Jonathan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Jonathan_Blazek_1400.jpg\")
Exoplanets are vital for understanding how the Solar System formed and whether humanity is alone among the stars, said Jonathan Blazek, an assistant professor of physics at Northeastern University. Photo by Matthew Modoono\/Northeastern University<\/p>\n
Why should these distant exoplanets matter to Earthlings? There is the obvious implication that other planets could also have other forms of life. The potential discovery of an alien civilization is tantalizing, but Blazek said it\u2019s more plausible for scientists to find \u201cbiomarkers,\u201d signatures of more basic forms of life.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s more likely that the composition of an exoplanet\u2019s atmosphere has trace elements that indicate the presence of algae rather than a sentient alien race, Blazek explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Exoplanets also help scientists better understand how the Solar System formed and, in turn, how life formed on Earth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we\u2019re looking at just our solar system, it\u2019s hard to say whether we were special or lucky or whether indeed we\u2019re more typical,\u201d Blazek said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s still difficult to say what a typical exoplanet looks like, according to Blazek. Most of the exoplanets discovered so far are so-called hot Jupiters, large planets that are extremely hot because of their proximity to their respective stars.<\/p>\n
Historically, it has been much easier to find large exoplanets that are close to a star, Blazek said. In what\u2019s known as the transit method, used to discover almost 3,000 exoplanets, according to the Planetary Society, anyone using a telescope can easily identify such planets because of how they block light when passing in front of a star. Large exoplanets can even exert a little gravitational tug on their own star, which changes the velocity of a star just enough for scientists to detect it.<\/p>\n
These kinds of exoplanets, however, are \u201cnot consistent with life as we know it,\u201d which makes the discovery of HD 137010 even more exciting, Blazek said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Unlike the hot Jupiters astronomers are used to finding, HD 137010 is just slightly larger than Earth and has a similar orbital period, around one year. Previously discovered exoplanets have orbits that range hours to almost 1,000 years. Its temperature is far below Earth\u2019s because its star, although of a similar type to the Sun, is much cooler and dimmer. But this exoplanet also falls just within the edge of its star\u2019s habitable zone, the area in a star\u2019s orbit where a planet could have liquid water and potentially form life, according to NASA.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also relatively close, intergalactically speaking: HD 137010 is around 146 light-years away from Earth. That\u2019s just a short 858 billion mile or 1.4 quadrillion kilometer jaunt.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even though that\u2019s more than 36 times farther away from Earth than Proxima Centauri b, \u201cWe\u2019re in the same town even if we\u2019re not on the same block,\u201d Blazek said.<\/p>\n
Given its size, orbit and likely surface conditions, HD 137010 is an anomaly based on previously known exoplanets. But with advancements in telescopic technology and data analytics, it could mark the beginning of a new era in exoplanet discovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would expect this is not the last planet that is Earth-similar that we\u2019re going to find soon,\u201d Blazek said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists might have just found Earth\u2019s icy, distant cousin a few hundred million light years away. HD 137010…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[909,61,60,91,13956,82,247],"class_list":["post-318664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-astrophysics","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-nasa","tag-planetary-science","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}