{"id":564170,"date":"2026-07-23T11:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T11:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/564170\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T11:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T11:45:12","slug":"researchers-discover-earth-like-planet-with-atmosphere-48-light-years-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/564170\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers discover Earth-like planet with atmosphere 48 light-years away"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For the first time, scientists have found a rocky planet with an atmosphere orbiting in a star\u2019s habitable zone. <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfa.harvard.edu\/news\/first-atmosphere-detected-habitable-zone-rocky-world\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Researchers from Harvard University<\/a> say the Earth-like world has conditions similar to those on Earth.<\/p>\n<p>The exoplanet, LHS 1140 b, is 48 light-years from Earth. It orbits a red dwarf star at a distance close enough for water to remain liquid, but far enough away that it would not boil.<\/p>\n<p>RELATED STORY | <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scrippsnews.com\/science-and-tech\/space\/pluto-flyby-mission-wakes-up-after-long-sleep-nearly-6-billion-miles-from-earth\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pluto flyby mission wakes up after long sleep nearly 6 billion miles from Earth<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Although researchers have identified other exoplanets in our galaxy, only a handful of rocky worlds have been found in what is known as the habitable zone. LHS 1140 b is the first of those planets found to have an atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAn atmosphere is essential for a planet to support life as we know it,\u201d lead author Collin Cherubim said. \u201cThis is the first time anyone has found an atmosphere on a rocky planet in the habitable zone of another star.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Researchers are not yet able to determine what the atmosphere is made of. Earth\u2019s atmosphere is mostly nitrogen, which scientists consider a filler gas. Oxygen is another important element for life on Earth.<\/p>\n<p>Whether the atmosphere could support life remains unknown. However, Cherubim and his team determined that helium is escaping from the exoplanet\u2019s upper atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwenty years ago, we wondered whether other terrestrial-type planets even existed,\u201d said Robin Wordsworth, a Harvard professor and one of Cherubim\u2019s dissertation advisers. \u201cThen we learned they\u2019re common and found some in the habitable zone. The next question was whether any of them had managed to keep an atmosphere. Now we know at least one has.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Scientists now hope to use Cherubim\u2019s method for studying exoplanet atmospheres to explore other worlds and search for atmospheres surrounding additional planets.<\/p>\n<p>RELATED STORY | <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scrippsnews.com\/science-and-tech\/space\/astronomers-have-found-sugar-thats-found-in-raspberries-self-tanners-in-space\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Astronomers have found sugar that&#8217;s found in raspberries, self-tanners in spac<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time, scientists have found a rocky planet with an atmosphere orbiting in a star\u2019s habitable&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[61,60,82,247],"class_list":["post-564170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564170","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=564170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}