TOI-1452b: An Earth-like planet with deeper oceans and two suns.

 

Recently NASA discovered an exoplanet orbiting around two suns outside our solar system in the Draco constellation. It is named TOI-1452b and is 70% larger in size compared to Earth. The most striking feature of the planet is that it is covered with oceans considered to be deeper than those on Earth. But the feature that arouses the greatest interest is that the planet is situated in the habitable region of the parent stars and water on it remains in a liquid form unlike many moons in our solar system.

This super-earth was discovered two years ago by the TESS space telescope. The planet orbits a binary star system that has currently collapsed to its dwarf stage. So they are around four times smaller than the sun. The revolution speed of the planet is extremely high and so a year on this planet lasts for only 11 days. The orbit of the exoplanet is smaller compared to Earth separated by only 97 astronomical units. Moreover, it is cooler but receives enough light to sustain life.

Researchers have estimated a total ocean presence of around 30% of the total mass. This is huge compared to that of Earth because Earth's 70% water regions only make up about 1% of the total mass. The massiveness of the planet suggests that the depths of the oceans will be far greater than those on Earth. So from this, we can understand the huge reservoir of water that this planet holds. To add to this, all the water present on this planet is in liquid form, which is a real advantage. We know that Jupiter's two moons Ganymede and Callisto contain deep oceans, but they are buried deep beneath thick sheets of ice. The same applies to Saturn's moons Titan and Enceladus.

                 Jupiter and its moon Ganymede

                        Titan: Saturn's moon

To draw some concrete inferences, scientists need to get more observations from powerful telescopes like the James Webb. It is theorized that life originated under the oceans near the hydrothermal vents. Considering this, presence of such a huge amount of water are really positive signs for us. Although scientists are of the idea that the planet does not have an atmosphere, we know that the planet can be brimming with life. This is because some of the branches of the oldest bacteria can live in extreme environments. So in all, the exoplanet is of great interest to us and can be significant in shaping the future of humanity.

                       Bacteria

by

Prabir Rudra

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Red dwarfs: the immortal entities of the universe

Red dwarfs are small-sized stars of around 0.2 solar masses that burn by converting their hydrogen to helium through nuclear fusion. The rate of burning is so slow that their estimated life span is of the order of trillions of years. 

Since our universe is just 13.8 billion years old it has not seen the death of any red dwarf. Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the sun is a red dwarf. How amazing is that!!

In fact, fifty out of the sixty closest stars are all red dwarfs. Due to their low luminosity, they are not easily visible. Interestingly not a single red dwarf is visible from Earth with the naked eye. Red dwarfs along with being the smallest kind of star in the main sequence are also the coolest kind. The coolest red dwarfs can have temperatures around 2000 K. The smallest red dwarfs can have radii around 9% of that of the sun with a mass around 7.5% of the solar mass.

by

Prabir Rudra

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