Super Earth
Highlights
- Earth has been uninhabited for humans and other large organisms in its 4.5 billion years.
- Exoplanets are super-Earths, which are up to 70 percent larger than Earth.
- There may be a possibility of life on Super Earth.
Super Earth: Astronomers now routinely discover planets orbiting stars outside the Solar System—they’re called exoplanets, but in the summer of 2022, teams working on NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite discovered some particularly interesting planets. found orbiting in the habitable zones of their parent stars. One of these planets is 30 percent larger than Earth and orbits its star in less than three days. The other is 70 percent larger than Earth and a deep ocean is likely to exist there. These two exoplanets are super-Earths.
These super Earths are more massive than Earth, but smaller than Uranus and Neptune. Earth is still the only planet in the universe where there is life. It would seem logical to focus the search for life on Earth-like planets – planets that have characteristics similar to those of Earth. But research has shown that astronomers’ best chance of finding life on another planet is likely on the recently found super-Earth. Most of the super-Earths that are common and easy to find orbit cold dwarf stars, which have less mass and live longer than the Sun.
Hundreds of dwarf stars orbit the Super Earth
For every star like the Sun, there are hundreds of cold dwarf stars, and scientists have found Super-Earths orbiting 40 percent of the coldest dwarf stars they have observed. Using that number, astronomers estimate that there are tens of billions of super-Earths in the habitable zones where liquid water could exist in the Milky Way alone. Since the entire life-world on Earth uses water, water is considered vital for survival. Based on current estimates, about a third of all exoplanets are super-Earths, making them the most common type of exoplanet in the Milky Way. Nearest is only six light years away from Earth. You could also say that our solar system is unusual because it does not have any planets with a mass between that of Earth and Neptune.
What is the probability of life on Super Earth?
Another reason super-Earths are ideal targets in the search for life is because they are much easier to detect and study than Earth-sized planets. Astronomers use two methods to detect exoplanets. One looks for the gravitational effect of a planet on its parent star and the other looks for a brief dimming of a star’s light as the planet passes in front of it. Both of these detection methods are easy in the case of the larger planet. Super-Earths are optimal habitable 300 years ago, the German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz argued that Earth is “the best of all possible worlds”. Leibniz’s argument was intended to address the question of why evil exists, but modern astronomers have explored a similar question as to what makes a planet capable of life. It turns out that Earth is not the best of all possible worlds. Due to the tectonic activity of the Earth and changes in the brightness of the Sun, the climate here has undergone large-scale changes from time to time. Earth has been uninhabited for humans and other large organisms for most of its 4.5 billion year history. The possibility of long-term life on Earth was not inevitable but a coincidence.
denser atmosphere than earth
Man is really lucky that he is alive. Researchers have come up with a list of characteristics that make a planet very favorable for life. Larger planets are more likely to be geologically active, a feature that scientists think will fuel biological evolution. So the most habitable planet would be about twice the mass of Earth and 20 percent to 30 percent larger by size. It would also have oceans large enough for light to propel life down to the ocean floor and have an average temperature of 77 degrees Fahrenheit (25 degrees Celsius). It will have a denser atmosphere than Earth which will act as an insulating blanket. Ultimately, such a planet would orbit a star older than the Sun to give life longer to develop, and would have a stronger magnetic field that shields it from cosmic radiation. Scientists believe that these properties together will make a planet optimally habitable. By definition, a Super-Earth has many of the qualities of an optimal habitable planet.
Scientists still have a lot to discover
To date, astronomers have discovered two dozen super-Earth exoplanets that, if not the best of all possible worlds, are theoretically more habitable than Earth. Recently, there has been an exciting increase in the list of habitable planets. Astronomers have begun searching for exoplanets that have been ejected from their star systems, and billions of them may be roaming the Milky Way. Detecting Life on Super-Earths To detect life on distant exoplanets, astronomers will look for biosignatures, which are products of biology that can be detected in a planet’s atmosphere. There can be many reasons why there are no signs of life in a habitable world. If astronomers find nothing on these super Earths in the coming years, humanity may be forced to conclude that the universe is uninhabited.
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