An Earth-sized world 11 light-years from home may be our next best shot to find alien life
Eleven light-years away, an Earth-sized world orbits a cool, red star, and it may be just right for life.
The planet, known as Ross 128b, completes an orbit of its star, Ross 128, about once every 10 days, according to new research published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
While a 10-day orbit might bake a world around a sun-like star, Ross 128 isn't at all like the sun.
The relatively nearby red dwarf star is small and cool, so Ross 128b's 10-day orbit could actually make it ideal for life to develop.
On top of that, Ross 128 is thought to be a pretty quiet star, meaning that it doesn't shoot off powerful atmosphere-stripping flares very often, making Ross 128b an even better prospect for life.
That said, it's still not exactly clear if Ross 128b is habitable.
"While the scientists involved in this discovery consider Ross 128b to be a temperate planet, uncertainty remains as to whether the planet lies inside, outside, or on the cusp of the habitable zone, where liquid water may exist on a planet’s surface," the European Southern Observatory (ESO) said in a statement announcing the discovery.
Ross 128's quiet nature makes it special.
Proxima Centauri, which is also a red dwarf 4 light-years from Earth that plays host to its own Earth-sized world, might be a bit too active to allow life to develop nearby over the course of billions of years. But it seems that Ross 128 may not have that problem.
Plus, astronomers of the future may have the chance to study Ross 128 and its possibly habitable planet from very close range.
Right now, the star is speeding toward Earth's part of space. According to the ESO, in about 79,000 years, the object will become the second-closest star from Earth (after the sun), moving closer than Proxima Centauri.
During the coming decades, scientists hope to use powerful tools to peer deeply into the atmospheres of planets outside our solar system in order to see exactly which worlds may or may not be habitable.
The ESO's Extremely Large Telescope, for example, will be able to look for chemicals in the atmosphere of other planets that could be indicators of life, according to the organization, and NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, slated for launch in 2019, will also have the ability to parse out the compositions of alien atmospheres.
Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
