Earth-Like Planet's Atmosphere Confirmed In Major Search For Alien Life
For the first time, astronomers have confirmed the presence of an atmosphere around a rocky exoplanet orbiting within its star’s habitable zone, marking a major milestone in the search for life beyond our solar system.
Located 49 light years away in the Cetus constellation, LHS 1140b has a mass roughly 5.6 times that of Earth and a radius about 70% larger. Unlike gas giants or the larger, puffier sub-Neptunes class where atmospheric detections are more common, LHS 1140b is firmly rocky. Crucially, it orbits within the temperate Goldilocks zone of its red dwarf star where temperatures are mild enough that liquid water could pool on its surface.
Published this week in the Science journal, the discovery was led by Dr. Collin Cherubim, an astrophysicist based at Harvard University and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Cherubim and his team analyzed data captured using the infrared multi-object spectrograph (MIRMOS) mounted on...
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