Nov 07, 2024

Home > Extraterrestrial > Webb Telescope Finds 'Super-Earth'? A Lava Ocean, More Than 40 Light Years Away

Webb Telescope Finds 'Super-Earth'? A Lava Ocean, More Than 40 Light Years Away

Webb Telescope Finds 'Super-Earth'? A Lava Ocean, More Than 40 Light Years Away

If human civilisation is to continue forever, it will not be possible to survive on earth. On the one hand, the earth's resources are too limited to meet the needs of a civilisation developing at such a rapid rate that it will be depleted in the future. On the other hand, the habitability of the earth will not remain unchanged forever. The earth was not a habitable planet at the beginning of its existence, when its surface was covered with lava oceans and the temperature was very high. Later, the temperature of the earth's surface gradually decreased, and a topography of land and sea was slowly formed, creating the conditions for the earth to nurture life.

Even though the earth's environment has been relatively stable, environmental changes have not stopped, especially in the process of human social development, we have more and more influence on the earth, and one of the problems often mentioned is the problem of climate warming. If the earth's warming trend is not controlled, the temperature of the earth will become higher and higher in the future, and once it gets out of control, it may no longer be livable. Therefore, the ultimate way out for human civilization is actually to leave the earth and migrate to outer planets.

The famous scientist stephen hawking has made many prophecies, some of which refer to the possible risks that humanity may face in the future, and our way out is to leave the solar system and emigrate to an alien planet. Mr hawking believes that it is possible that in the next 200 to 500 years we humans will have mastered the technology of interstellar flight and established a habitat in the milky way galaxy, and that our first stop outside our solar system may be the planet proxima b, some 4.22 light years away from earth. Of course, with the current state of technology, it will take us tens of thousands of years or more to reach proxima b, but mr hawking believes that but mr hawking believes that in the future, with major breakthroughs in interstellar flight, the time from earth to proxima b could be reduced to about 10 years. In this way, it will no longer be difficult for humans to reach proxima b.

Webb telescope discovers 'super-earth'

As an intelligent civilisation, our goals are not limited to our solar system or the nearby planet proxima b. Our ultimate future goal may be to reach even more distant exoplanets. That is why scientists have been working to find more planets that are suitable for us to inhabit. Of course, although there are many exoplanets in the vast universe, not all of them have excellent environmental conditions, and there are some exoplanets whose environments are still quite different from those of earth. For example, the james webb telescope has discovered two 'super-earths', but these two 'super-earths' should not be suitable for us to live on.

The james webb space telescope has only been up for a short time and has not achieved as much as the hubble telescope, and in preparation for its first cosmic discoveries, nasa is accumulating a list of interstellar targets. On thursday, nasa announced three targets, two hot "Super-earths", one of which is covered by an ocean of molten rock and the other has no atmosphere. The other has no atmosphere.

Laura kreidberg of the max planck institute for astronomy said in a statement that these findings will help us understand what the earth was like in its early days when it was a hot planet like these. As we mentioned earlier, the earth was also covered by lava oceans and was also very hot at the beginning of its life. These "Super-earths" May be what the earth looked like more than 4 billion years ago.

Super-earth 55 cancri e is about 40 light-years away from our planet, is about 8.63 times as massive as earth, and orbits a sun-like star. Because this 'super-earth' is less than 1.5 million miles, or about 2.4 million kilometres, away from its host star, the temperature on the surface of this 'super-earth' is so high that scientists believe the rocks on its surface will simply the molten rocks on its surface are thought to have melted into an ocean of molten rock.

Another 'super-earth', lhs 3844 b, is even further away from our planet, at 48 light-years, and one of the features of this 'super-earth' is that there does not seem to be any air on its surface, or rather, this 'super-earth' does not have any air. The "Super-earth" Does not have a "Substantial atmosphere".

'super-habitable' planets discovered

Although we do not know much about these two 'super-earths' yet, the basic facts are that neither of them is suitable for human habitation. "The first one is very hot and the second one has no atmosphere. Therefore, these planets are not the destination for human migration. Our destination should be those earth-like planets with a suitable temperature, atmosphere and liquid water. Scientists have discovered that there are more planets that are suitable for us to live on in the vast depths of the universe, and there are some planets that may be more remote and more comfortable to live on than earth.

Scientists have now discovered over 5,000 exoplanets and have selected 24 'super-habitable' planets from these known exoplanets. These 'super-habitable' planets all have relatively favourable environmental conditions, and the outline of these 'super-habitable' planets looks something like this.

A "Super-habitable" Planet orbiting a k-dwarf star that is slightly cooler than a yellow dwarf like the sun.

The age of "Super-habitable" Planets is between 5 and 8 billion years old.

The size of "Super-habitable" Planets is about 10% larger than earth.

The average surface temperature of "Super-habitable" Planets is about 5°c higher than that of the earth.

The atmospheric oxygen content of "Super-habitable" Planets is between 25% and 30%, and they also have an abundance of water and land.

"A 'super-habitable' planet also has a moon of 1-10% of its own size, which orbits it at an appropriate distance.

As the conditions on these 'super-habitable' planets are indeed good, much better than the earth-like planets of our solar system, mars, mercury and venus, scientists believe that living on these 'super-habitable' planets could be more comfortable than on earth and could be a future destination for us humans. They could also be the "Perfect place" To search for extraterrestrial life.

Scientists say that these 'super-habitable' planets are too far away from our planet, more than 100 light years, to be studied in any depth, let alone reach them, even with the most powerful telescopes to date. Although it is not yet possible to land on a 'super habitable' planet, there is reason to believe that interstellar migration is possible in the future.