A newfound rocky planet could be the most important world found beyond our solar system and is close enough for scientists to study whether it has an atmosphere. GJ 1132b is just 39 light-years away.
The planet is about 20 per cent bigger than earth but much denser. It orbits a star that is smaller and cooler than our sun, but is so close to it that temperatures are between 200 and 300 degrees Celsius. That is likely too hot for there to be any life, but not too hot for it to have an atmosphere. Atmospheres fascinate scientists because their makeup can reveal possibilities of life on a given planet.
‘Does it have bio signatures for life?’
“What we’re mostly interested in (is), is there another planet like earth,” says Jesse Rogerson, a PhD candidate in astrophysics at York University in Toronto. “Is there a planet that’s roughly the same size as us. Is there a planet that … orbits a star like ours and does that planet have an atmosphere.
“What’s in that atmosphere? Does it have oxygen, does it have methane, does it have nitrogen—all of the things that you and I would consider bio signatures for life.”
ListenIf GJ 1132b does have an atmosphere, scientists would be able to study it and to practice how to study atmospheres on planets that are further away.
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