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Astronomers discover potential habitable exoplanet only 31 light-years from Earth - Space.com

Astronomers discover potential habitable exoplanet only 31 light-years from Earth - Space.com

Astronomers discover potential habitable exoplanet only 31 light-years from Earth - Space.com
Feb 03, 2023 1 min, 6 secs

Wolf 1069 b also orbits in its star's habitable zone, making it a prime candidate for liquid water to potentially exist on its surface.

" When we analyzed the data of the star Wolf 1069, we discovered a clear, low-amplitude signal of what appears to be a planet of roughly Earth mass," Diana Kossakowski, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany and lead author on the new research, said in a statement.

While tidal locking means the planet doesn't have a day/night cycle like Earth, the researchers hope that its dayside could still boast habitable conditions.

"I want to highlight the incredible international team effort that was put together to discover such a fascinating planet," Kossakowski told Space.com in an email.

Given its relatively short distance from Earth of 31 light-years, Wolf 1069 b is now the sixth closest Earth-mass habitable zone exoplanet; the others are, in order of increasing distance, Proxima Centauri b, GJ 1061 d, Teegarden's Star c, and GJ 1002 b and c. The researchers also note that global climate model climate simulations put Wolf 1069 b in a small group of exoplanets that are potential targets in the search for biosignatures, or chemical fingerprints of life.

"Though it's crucial we develop our facilities considering most of the closest potentially habitable worlds are detected via the RV [radial velocity] method only."

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