A newly discovered world orbiting a red dwarf star a mere 14 light years away is the closest potentially habitable exoplanet discovered to date, experts from the University of New South Wales in Australia report in the latest edition of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The planet, which is more than four times the mass of Earth, was found during observations of the star Wolf 1061, conducted using the HARPS spectrograph on the 3.6 meter telescope run by the European Southern Observatory, and located at La Silla Observatory in Chile.
It was one of three planets discovered by the UNSW team. The planets orbit the relatively cool, small, and stable red dwarf once every five, 18, and 67 days, respectively. The other two planets have masses 1.4 and 5.2 times that of the Earth, with the largest of them residing too far outside the habitable zone and the smallest orbiting too close to its host star.
“It is a particularly exciting find,” lead author Dr. Duncan Wright said in a statement, “because all three planets are of low enough mass to be potentially rocky and have a solid surface, and the middle planet, Wolf 1061c, sits within the ‘Goldilocks’ zone where it might be possible for liquid water – and maybe even life – to exist.”
Proximity may allow scientists to study the planet’s atmosphere
Dr. Wright added that it was “fascinating to look out at the vastness of space and think a star so very close to us – a near neighbor – could host a habitable planet.” While scientist have found a few planets orbiting stars closer than Wolf 1061, none have been potentially habitable.
According to Professor Chris Tinney, head of the Exoplanetary Science at UNSW group, he and his colleagues were able to discover these new worlds using a new method that they used to look at data collected by the 3.6 meter telescope’s spectrograph for more than a decade.
Tinny said that the planet residing in Wolf 1061’s habitable zone—or the area around a star where liquid water could exist on the surface—“join the small but growing ranks of potentially habitable rocky worlds orbiting nearby stars cooler than our Sun.” Unlike most of those planets, though, it is not located thousands or even hundreds of light years away.
“The close proximity of the planets around Wolf 1061 means there is a good chance these planets may pass across the face of the star,” added Dr. Rob Wittenmyer, co-author of the new paper. “If they do, then it may be possible to study the atmospheres of these planets in future to see whether they would be conducive to life.”
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Feature Image: University of New South Wales
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