Potential ‘Earth-like’ planet discovered 150 light years away
Astronomers say they have found a potentially habitable planet that is very much like Earth, however, there is one major difference that could make living there a little less appealing
READING LEVEL: GREEN
Australian astronomers have discovered what appears to be an “Earth-like” planet located 150 light years away – but you would need to be pretty tough to live there.
The potentially habitable* candidate* planet, named, HD 137010 b, is nearly the exact same size as the Earth and has a similar orbital period* as our home, with its year lasting 355 days.
HD 137010 b is also a similar distance from the sun as the Earth, but receives nearly 70 per cent less light, making it slightly “cooler” than our planet.
In fact, the surface temperature is estimated to reach below -70 C in some areas – with its climate more similar to Mars.
The discovery was made by an international team, led by University of Southern Queensland researcher Dr Alexander Venner, and used data from NASA’s 2017 Kepler* extended K2 mission.
Researchers said findings placed it near “the outer edge of the habitable zone*,” where liquid water could possibly exist under the right conditions.
The findings were published in the Astrophysical* Journal Letters on Thursday.
“This is the first planet candidate with Earth-like radius* and orbital* properties transiting* a sun-like star bright enough for substantial follow-up observations,” the study states.
One of the researchers, University of Southern Queensland’s Dr Chelsea Huang, told the ABC the discovery was “really exciting”.
“Since the discovery of the first exoplanet* 30 years ago, we’ve always tried to find Earth’s twin,” Dr Huang said.
“We haven’t found that yet. But we are a step closer.”
Lead researcher Dr Venner, said there was a 50 per cent chance the candidate planet was habitable.
The planet has only been spotted passing in front of its star once and for this reason it is officially called a “planet candidate”.
Follow up observations will aim to prove whether or not HD 137010 b is definitely a confirmed planet.
POLL
GLOSSARY
- habitable: able to sustain life
- candidate: suspected to be a planet but not yet confirmed
- orbital period: the total time a planet takes to orbit the sun, representing 365 days, 5 hours and 48 minutes (one year) in the case of Earth
- Kepler: NASA’s Kepler space telescope was launched into space in March 2009 with a mission to find Earth-sized planets orbiting stars outside our own solar system. It spent nine years in deep space, including an extended mission called K2, and proved there are billions of exoplanets hidden within our galaxy, many of which could potentially be habitable
- habitable zone: also known as the Goldilocks zone, where conditions for life are ‘not too cold, not too hot, but just right’, the habitable zone is the distance from a star where liquid water could exist on the surface of a planet that orbits a star
- Astrophysical: the branch of astronomy where chemistry and physics are applied to the study of space objects
- radius: the distance from the centre to the surface of a sphere or edge of a circle measured along a straight line
- orbital: relating to the orbit or curved path of an object in space
- transiting: travelling or moving
- exoplanet: a planet that orbits a star outside the solar system
EXTRA READING
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QUICK QUIZ
1. What is it about the candidate planet HD 137010 b that makes it similar to Earth?
2. Why is HD 137010 b cooler than Earth?
3. What chance is there that HD 137010 b is habitable?
4. Why is HD 137010 b considered a “planet candidate”?
5. When was the first exoplanet discovered?
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CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. New planet candidate
HD 137010 b has been confirmed as a “planet candidate”.
What other factors would this planet need to have to be a possible candidate for human life to inhabit it? Work with a partner and write a list of factors needed below;
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Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Science, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking
2. Extension
If humans were to exist on this planet and the surface temperature can get to -70 degrees, what sort of accommodation and other items would be needed for us to survive and live comfortably?
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Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Science, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking
VCOP ACTIVITY
Wow word recycle
There are plenty of wow words (ambitious pieces of vocabulary) being used in the article. Some are in the glossary, but there might be extra ones from the article that you think are exceptional as well.
Identify all the words in the article that you think are not common words, and particularly good choices for the writer to have chosen.
Select three words you have highlighted to recycle into your own sentences.
If any of the words you identified are not in the glossary, write up your own glossary for them.
Extension
Find a bland sentence from the article to up-level. Can you add more detail and description? Can you replace any base words with more specific synonyms?
Down-level for a younger audience. Find a sentence in the article that is high level. Now rewrite it for a younger audience so they can understand the words without using the glossary.