A rocky super-Earth 48 light-years away, approximately 1.7 times the diameter and 5.6 times the mass of our planet, may be capable of sustaining life. The exoplanet, LHS 1140 b, was leaking helium, which could be indicative of the presence of an atmosphere, a necessary factor for life to flourish.<\/p>\n
A whole new world<\/p>\n LHS 1140 b likely has an \u201cupper atmosphere dominated by helium and depleted in hydrogen, with other volatile species trapped at lower altitudes,\u201d said a study published in the journal Science<\/a>. The exoplanet<\/a> was discovered in 2017 and was found to share many qualities with Earth. Though its temperatures are colder than our planet\u2019s, it \u201corbits a red dwarf star within the star\u2019s habitable zone,\u201d which is the sweet spot \u201cwhere temperatures and environmental conditions are within the range that could support liquid water on the planet\u2019s surface,\u201d said a news release<\/a> about the study. This is the \u201cfirst time anyone has found an atmosphere on a rocky planet in the habitable zone of another star,\u201d Collin Cherubim, the lead author of the study, said in the release.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The researchers were able to identify the exoplanet\u2019s atmosphere<\/a> using a technique that is \u201ctypically reserved for observing giant planets,\u201d and using it \u201cfor a rocky planet, which nobody has done before,\u201d Cherubim said to Space.com<\/a> (a sister site of The Week). With the Warm Infrared Echelle (WINERED) Spectrograph on the Magellan Observatory in Chile, they were \u201cable to see LHS 1140 b and another planet both transit, or pass in front of, their star in the same night,\u201d where they could \u201cidentify the signatures of molecules in the atmospheres of these planets as they passed,\u201d said Space.com. One planet \u201cyielded no results,\u201d but LHS 1140 b \u201cshowed a direct, undeniable helium signature.\u201d<\/p>\n The Week<\/p>\n Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \nSUBSCRIBE & SAVE\n<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Sign up for The Week’s Free Newsletters<\/p>\n From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n Latest Videos FromThe Week<\/p>\n Helium is a \u201cvery light gas that easily escapes gravity,\u201d so it \u201ccould serve as a readily detectable marker of a complex atmosphere underneath,\u201d said Time<\/a>. A potential atmosphere is a significant find as small red dwarf planets are the \u201cmost common type of star, and hence our best chance for studying nearby rocky exoplanets in their habitable zone,\u201d said The Guardian<\/a>. Red dwarfs aren\u2019t as bright as our sun, so their planetary habitable zone tends to be in the range of solar flares, which often strip \u201caway the atmospheres from the planets they host, leaving rocky planets with thin atmospheres or airless.\u201d<\/p>\n Endless diamond sky<\/p>\n While the findings are promising, \u201cat this point, we have absolutely no evidence for life on the planet,\u201d Cherubim said to The New York Times<\/a>. \u201cBut we think all of the really important, essential ingredients are there.\u201d The question remains whether LHS 1140 b is \u201cbare rock with no atmosphere that sometimes burps up some gas that then immediately escapes,\u201d or if there is a \u201csteady-state atmosphere there that will leak out stuff like the Earth does from time to time,\u201d Jason Dittmann, an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Florida and the one who first found the planet, said to The Independent<\/a>.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n An atmosphere helps a planet hold water, regulate climate and protect from space radiation. To determine whether the helium leak is from an atmosphere, NASA<\/a>\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope will be used to \u201clook for water, and if there\u2019s water in the atmosphere, then it\u2019s probably a stable atmosphere that will persist,\u201d said Dittman to The Independent. Even if this exoplanet is not the next Earth, \u201cif one potentially organic world is out there, countless others could be too,\u201d said Time. The existence of potentially viable planets \u201cdramatically\u201d boosts the odds of alien life<\/a>.<\/p>\n