Second closest Earth like exoplanet found 11 light years away at Ross128

A planet just 3.4 parsecs away either having liquid water or just shy of having some makes an extremely appealing characterization target.

Stellar activity is probably the highest concern regarding the emergence of life, and even the survival of an atmosphere, on planets orbiting M dwarfs. Restricting the target list to quiet stars would disqualify Proxima Cen b and leave Ross 128 b as the best temperate planet known to date. This will certainly make this new temperate exoEarth a top target for characterization with the 39 meter extremely large telescope ELTs. The ELT is under construction and should be ready in 2024 to start performing science.

Proxima B (4 light years away) and Ross128b have similar optical apparent magnitudes, leading to similar planetary apparent magnitudes. A realistic investment of E-ELT resources can therefore most likely detect Ross 128 b with high-angular resolution plus high-dispersion spectroscopy, although not as easily as Prox Cen b.

The combination of high-contrast imaging and high-dispersion spectroscopy, which has successfully been use to detect the atmosphere of a giant planet, is one of the most promising potential probes of the atmosphere of Earth-size worlds. The forthcoming generation of extremely large telescopes (ELTs) may obtain sufficient contrast with this technique to detect O2 in the atmosphere of those worlds that orbit low-mass M dwarfs. This is strong motivation to carry out a census of planets around cool stars for which habitable zones can be resolved by ELTs, i.e. for M dwarfs within ∼5 parsecs. Our HARPS survey has been a major contributor to that sample of nearby planets. Here we report on our radial velocity observations of Ross 128 (Proxima Virginis, GJ447, HIP 57548), an M4 dwarf just 3.4 parsec away from our Sun. This source hosts an exo-Earth with a projected mass m sin i = 1.35M⊕ and an orbital period of 9.9 days. Ross 128 b receives ∼1.38 times as much flux as Earth from the Sun and its equilibrium ranges in temperature between 269 K for an Earth-like albedo and 213 K for a Venus-like albedo. Recent studies place it close to the inner edge of the conventional habitable zone. An 80-day long light curve from K2 campaign C01 demonstrates that Ross 128 b does not transit. Together with the All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS) photometry and spectroscopic activity indices, the K2 photometry shows that Ross 128 rotates slowly and has weak magnetic activity. In a habitability context, this makes survival of its atmosphere against erosion more likely. Ross 128 b is the second closest known exo-Earth, after Proxima Centauri b (1.3 parsec), and the closest temperate planet known around a quiet star. The 15 mas planet-star angular separation at maximum elongation will be resolved by ELTs in the optical bands of O2.

A temperate exo-Earth around a quiet M dwarf at 3.4 parsecs

6 thoughts on “Second closest Earth like exoplanet found 11 light years away at Ross128”

  1. Like always, it is the same story. There is tons of planets like earth scattered
    around the Milky Way.
    The big question is: given a earth-like planet,
    what is the probability for it to develop life.

    Because we don’t know exactly how did life arise on
    Earth, we basically have no idea of how
    common such even really is. Thus, talking about
    finding life on other planets, even earth-like
    ones is just pure speculation, annoying speculation.

    The astrobiologists can talk as much as they want,
    to this point, from all we know, life is extremely
    rare, because it’s very hard for life to begin anywhere,
    even on a planet with optimal conditions.

    The sad conclusion of this all is that life would be ultra hard to find,
    we might very well find almost all the earth-like planets on the Milky Way
    galaxy and don’t find a single planet where life emerged.
    Or more probably find just a few, like 5 or so among thousands or millions.

    But honestly, I don’t expect we are ever going to find life on any
    of those exoplanets. Those discoveries are interesting as knowledge,
    but they will not answer the big question? Are we alone in the universe?

    It’s sad, but it’s the true.
    Sorry.

    • We should get a clue relatively soon (in historical terms, because this can take several decades yet), as the upcoming visible light and infrared exoplanet telescopes go up into space, and produce their first results.

      The signatures of life close to what we know should be visible in the spectrum of those faraway worlds.

      Clear enough to allow us to do relatively soon a census of nearby Earth like worlds, within a growing volume in light years, according to their physical characteristics like temperature, atmospheric pressure, metallicity and chemical composition.

      If there other true Earths analogues out there, we will know. But so far we just don’t know.

      • I agree with you that we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves on those matters.
        By from what we know now, I’m firmly skeptical about extraterrestrial life.

    • How do you get from ‘unknown’ to ‘low’? This is by no means default value, default, if any, would be extrapolating from what we know (1 planet we know capable of supporting life has life). Assuming that life is extremely rare is as much speculation (if not more) as assuming otherwise.

      Intelligent life, well, this is another story. But the most probable cause for Fermi paradox is that all civilizations suicide or go into VR (inteligent life is infovoric and creating artificial new experiences is cheaper than finding it IRL).

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