Almost the earth’s atmosphere “the second Venus”? – rmf24.pl

“the Second Venus” can be much more similar to Earth than we thought. Atmosphere, named just over a year ago the planet GJ 1132b may contain water vapor and methane. This writes in the complex for review in the journal “The Astrophysical Journal” the work of an international team of astronomers. The discovery of traces of extraterrestrial atmosphere around a distant planet opens a new era in the study of exoplanets, writes on its website, the magazine “Scientific American”.

like this might look like planet GJ 1132b, krążąca around its star /Dana Berry / Skyworks Digital / CfA /materials, press releases

the First observation of 2015 was stated that GJ 1132b difficult to consider twin Earth, because our planet a little more, and more than one and a half times heavier. It is surrounded by a thick atmosphere, whose temperature because of the proximity of the stars is too high for the origin of life. Hence the Association with Venus. Further research has delivered the planet, but in a slightly different light.

According to the latest European scientists, using equipment of the European southern Observatory (ESO) GJ 1132b is just a little heavier than Earth, its diameter is almost 1.5 diameter of our planet. This suggests that it is surrounded by a thick layer of the atmosphere. Research that atmosphere, though difficult, was possible because of the relatively small as the space conditions, the distance that separates us from it… only 39 light years. Using the 2.2-meter telescope MPG/ESO studies have been conducted of the spectrum of radiation passing through the atmosphere of the planet with its 9 tranzytach in front of the stellar disk. Observations in several frequency bands, from visible light with near IR showed the presence of water vapor and methane. What is most interesting, their proportions resemble those of our earth’s atmosphere.

for the first time, astronomers were able to observe the planet’s atmosphere pozasłonecznej more than 15 years ago. Still not been observed, but mainly in the case of the so-called gas giants, planets similar to our Jupiter. A randomly planet GJ 1132b crossed a significant barrier research worlds more like Earth. Now we have confirmed that a planet the size of Earth can hold a dense atmosphere, says first author John Southworth, an astrophysicist at Keele University in England. Is a step in the direction of study the possibility of the existence on these planets of life. The next step is research conducted with higher resolution, using large telescopes and spacecraft, covering a wider range of the spectrum , he added. When in October of the following year, the orbit will fly a new, larger space telescope James Webb, astronomers will try to cast a quick glance in the direction of this planet as soon as possible.

^(mpw)