An international team has confirmed the discovery of a super-Earth orbiting in the habitable zone of a nearby sun-like star. The planet was originally detected two years ago by Oxford University scientist Dr. Michael Cretignier. This result, drawing on more than two decades of observations, opens a window to future studies of Earth-like exoplanets that may have conditions suitable for life.
  • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    3 days ago

    Too true. I don’t know how many articles like this I’ve read over the last few years. The title suggests with weasel-words that an Earth-like paradise planet capable to supporting carbon/water based life has been found.

    But then when you dig into the details there’s always one or more catches that complicate things. Things like:

    • It’s a super Earth several times the mass of our Earth (as is the case here).
    • It doesn’t have tectonic activity and/or a magnetosphere.
    • There are actually zero signs of water.
    • It’s barely inside the habitable zone, so it’ll either be very hot or very cold.
    • The atmosphere turns out to be very toxic to life as we know it.
    • The star it orbits is highly volatile.
    • The star it orbits is a red dwarf (which while isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker it does present other challenges).
    • Its parent star system is very volatile and print to heavy colliding of other hazards.

    I’ve wondered why the habitable world spin is picked up so much. That makes a lot of sense that it’s being promoted to help get funding for post-graduate studies.