This may be the most important of discovered so far extrasolar planets. So editors of the weekly magazine “Nature” comments published on its pages the data of the planet GJ 1132b, orbiting a red dwarf star about 39 light years from us. The planet is slightly larger than Earth, rocky, probably surrounded atmosphere. It is very hot, which makes it similar to Venus. Most importantly, it is close enough that astronomers have the opportunity to more closely examine her.
“Our primary goal is of course for a second Earth, but this time – as if by the way – we found another Venus. We suspect that it has an atmosphere and not We look forward to when we will be able to study it, “- says David Charbonneau of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). “This planet will be in the coming years a favorite of astronomers for observation” – adds first author of the paper, Zachory Berta-Thompson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The planet GJ 1132b was discovered by the system automatically controlled eight 40-centimeter telescopes MEarth-South array, located in the Cerro-Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Their task is the search for alien worlds orbiting stars, called red dwarfs. The system monitors many thousands of red dwarfs located 100 light years from Earth, is looking for a temporary reduction in the brightness of stars, which may be a signal the passage of the planet across the face of the star.
After the discovery of the planet itself, the data on it collected in addition to the Magellan Clay telescope and spectrograph HARPS (High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher), using a 3.6-meter telescope at the European Southern Observatory in La Silla, also in Chile.
Measurements show that GJ 1132b is 16 percent larger than Earth, its mass is in turn greater than the mass of the Earth by 60 percent. The force of gravity on the planet is about 20 percent larger than on Earth. Same red dwarf is about the size five times smaller than the Sun, “the second Venus’ orbits it in 1.6 days at a distance of approximately 2.3 million kilometers. The temperature on the surface is estimated at about 230 degrees Fahrenheit, which means that the water in liquid form no chance there maintained. This, however, and so much cooler than the surface of other rocky extrasolar planets, so the chances that there are very serious atmosphere.
Distance consecutive 39 years light of how the conditions of space, very little. Astronomers are confident that with the help of space telescopes Hubble and Spitzer and the future James Webb also will be able to explore this planet and its possible atmosphere very carefully. They may be able to even get to know the speed of the winds that blow there, or color “sunset”.
Grzegorz Jasinski
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