What if there is another habitable planet apart from Earth and is not far, far away?
Scientists at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia recently discovered a new world that is one of three surrounding a red dwarf star called Wolf 1061 and described as "Super Earth", just 14 light years away from Earth, CNN reports Thursday.
Dr. Duncan Wright from UNSW, who spearheads the study finds this rare discovery incredibly exciting. "Other planets found that are habitable are not nearly this close to Earth," Dr. Wright said.
The "Super Earth", with mass more than four times the mass of the Earth and has a closer proximity to the planet presetns a good opportunity to explore and study its great habitable potential.
UNSW team member Rob Wittenmyer said that the close proximity of the planets around Wolf 1061 suggests that there is a good chance these planets may pass across the face of the star and if they do, then it may allow us to study the atmospheres of these planets in the future to see if they would be conducive to life.
NASA, to date, has also confirmed more than 1,870 exoplanets. These are worlds that exist outside our solar system. What makes this particular study significant is that Wolf 1061c is both habitable and near to our solar system.
However, Dr. Wright does not think human life may exist on Wolf 1061c since he conditions would not be pleasant; Gravity is something like 1.8 times that on Earth and the planet is likely to be tightly locked. One side permanently faces the star which is incredibly hot, while the other side permanently faces away from the star which makes it very cold.
But Wright hypothetically stated that there may be a "twilight zone" that partially faces the star, which makes life possible to exist and humans could "plausibly" survive.
Wright's team found Wolf 1061 in La Silla, Chile using the European Southern Observatory's 3.6 meter telescope.
