The search for life outside our solar system has taken another twist as researchers revealed they have discovered an atmosphere around an Earth-like planet 49 light years away that could have liquid water on its surface.<\/p>\n
Atmospheres have previously been found around gas giant exoplanets as well as \u201csub-Neptunes\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There have also been signs of such envelopes around rocky exoplanets that sit outside their star\u2019s habitable zone \u2014 a region in which liquid water could exist on the planet\u2019s surface, and hence potentially support life.<\/p>\n
But the new discovery is different.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the first actually observationally confirmed atmosphere on a rocky planet in the habitable zone outside of our solar system,\u201d said Collin Cherubim, the first author of the study, who until recently was based at Harvard University.<\/p>\n
The findings, he added, also marked the first direct identification of an atmospheric species for any rocky exoplanet, whether in a habitable zone or not.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a really exciting discovery because I think it really puts LHS 1140b at the forefront as the best, most promising, exciting laboratory for studying astrobiology and habitability outside of our solar system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The planet, LHS 1140b, has a mass 5.6 times that of Earth and its radius is 70% larger. While Mr Cherubim noted it was similar to Earth in some ways \u2014 such as its overall composition and temperature \u2014 it differs in others: for example it is tidally locked, could have far more water, and probably has a very different atmosphere.<\/p>\n
Discovered in 2017, it is relatively nearby and orbits a small red dwarf in the constellation of Cetus, the sea monster. This star is smaller and dimmer than our own sun but releases a greater proportion of its energy as ionising radiation.<\/p>\n
Cherubim said as a result of the new study we now know LHS 1140b has all the ingredients for a habitable environment: a relatively rocky planet, a temperature that supports liquid water, and an atmosphere to prevent the water from escaping and to shield the planet\u2019s surface from harmful radiation. In addition the star itself is quiet with few flares.<\/p>\n
\n So it\u2019s a really exciting place to keep looking, especially to look for signs of life.\n <\/p>\n
The team said no atmosphere was found around LHS 1140c \u2014 another rocky planet that orbits the same star.<\/p>\n
Writing in the journal Science,\u00a0Mr Cherubim and colleagues reported how they observed LHS1140b as it passed in front of its star, using an infrared spectrograph mounted on the Magellan Clay telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile.<\/p>\n
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Data captured in 2024 revealed helium that was escaping from the planet into space.<\/p>\n
Mr Cherubim said the team was able to rule out other possible explanations for the helium signal \u2013 including contamination from the Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n
Helium was not detected in observations of LHS1140b made in 2025. Mr Cherubim described that as a shock, causing him and others to reanalyse the initial findings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery false positive we could think of, we have confidently ruled out,\u201d Cheribum said.<\/p>\n
Jayne Birkby, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Oxford, said the work was a fantastic discovery, adding that while small red dwarf planets were the most common type of star, and hence our best chance for studying nearby rocky exoplanets in their habitable zone, they were often very active \u2014 stripping away the atmospheres from the planets they host, leaving rocky planets with thin atmosphere or airless.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat makes this discovery of an atmosphere surrounding LHS 1140b a crucial step towards understanding what it\u2019s like living with a red dwarf,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fascinating that the signal varies too, it shows how the exoplanet\u2019s atmosphere reacts to the high [extreme ultraviolet radiation] radiation of its host star, and may even tell us how this changes the planet\u2019s surface conditions too,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n It naturally leads one to ask if life could thrive here and if so what type of protective gear it would have had to evolve for itself.\n <\/p>\n
Yamila Miguel of Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands also welcomed the results, adding it was already known that planets close to their host stars could lose atmospheric gases to space.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat makes this planet so interesting is that it is losing enough of its atmosphere that we can actually detect it from here, which is not easy for a small, rocky planet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Ms Miguel noted the observations related to gas escaping from the planet\u2019s upper atmosphere \u2013 rather than the lower atmosphere or regions close to the surface, where life would be expected to evolve.<\/p>\n
\u201cTherefore I do not think these results have any direct implications for detecting life on other planets,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The search for life outside our solar system has taken another twist as researchers revealed they have discovered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,1042,60,1094,82,386],"class_list":["post-553548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-international","tag-ireland","tag-report","tag-science","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553548","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=553548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}