Welcome to Brainstuff from how Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff, luring vogel Bomb. Here, a very special alien world has been discovered on our galactic doorstep, and it may have the secret sauce that allows life as we know it to exist on its surface. Enter Ross B, an Earth sized exoplanet that likely orbits its star in the habitable zone. What makes this exoplanet discovery so exciting is that it's located only eleven light years away, Plus it's red dwarf
star appears to be inactive. That means that this newly discovered world may not face the radioactive ravages that other exoplanets likely endure, thereby boosting its habitable potential. Astronomers detected Ross one using the European Southern Observatories High accuracy radial velocity planet searcher A K. A. Harps at the Lascia Observatory in Chile. They measured the slight wobbles of the
star caused by the orbiting exoplanet. In a study published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, the researchers calculated the exo planet's mass and orbital period. A year on Ross B is slightly less than ten earth days, so the distance at which it whips around its star is very close. But as the red dwarf is so tiny and cool, the exoplanet receives a similar amount of solar heating as our planet receives from the Sun. Red dwarfs are the most common type of star in our galaxy, and many
are known to possess planetary systems. The closest star to our Solar system, Proximus Centauri, is a red dwarf, and in astronomers made the historic discovery of a small Earth sized exoplanet in its orbit. That world, called Proxima B, is the closest habitable zone exo planet to us, and may even have a temperate atmosphere that could support an
alien ecosystem. However, Proxima Centauri is a violent star that regularly erupts with powerful flares and pumps out X ray and ultra violet radiation, which tend to be deadly to life as we know it. If life could evolve on Proxima B, and that's a big if, the planet would need a very powerful magnetosphere a global magnetic feeld to deflect those powerful stellar winds and thus prevent its atmosphere from being stripped away and to prevent any life forms
from being irradiated. Ross, on the other hand, lives next to an inactive red dwarf star one that isn't blasting local space with a massive dose of radiation. In fact, according to an E. S O statement, Ross one is the quietest nearby star to host such a temperate exoplanet. Despite being twenty times closer to its star than Earth is to the Sun, Ross only receives thirty eight percent
more radiation. If it does have an atmosphere, life might have had an opportunity to gain a foothold without getting fried. Although radiation may not be a problem, orbiting so close to a red dwarf star presents a unique situation for habitable zone exoplanets like Ross. For example, researchers expect that the planet is tidally locked. Tidal locking occurs when a planet orbits close to its star, like the Moon is
tidally locked with Earth. That's the reason why we only ever see one side of the Moon facing Us as it orbits the planet. Exoplanets with compact orbits are also expected to become tidally locked with their stars. One hemispheres perpetually facing the star and the other hemisphere is always facing away, but this wouldn't necessarily be a death sentence.
With the right atmosphere or proportion of land masses two oceans, heat from the star could be distributed from the planet's warm daylight side to the cool side in perpetual darkness. For now, however, though ROSS is an exciting discovery, there's no way of knowing if the nearby world even possesses an atmosphere, let alone whether that hypothetical atmosphere has the right chemical balance for life to thrive. In July, the air Cebo radio telescope in Puerto Rico detected a mysterious
low frequency signal emanating from the ROSS system. Although there was some excitement for the possibility of a SETI like alien radio signal, stromers think that this is the least likely explanation, favoring the detection of an as yet unexplained stellar phenomenon or a rogue signal from an orbiting satellite.
When the next ration of ground and space based telescopes go online, such as the E s O S Extremely Large Telescope and NASA's James Webb Space Telescope for US, will become a prime target for astronomers to look for the spectroscopic clues of chemicals that could be produced by
an alien biosphere. Telescopes like the Extremely Large Telescope will be on the lookout for water, a substance that is essential in its liquid form for all life as we know it, but also possible bio markers like dioxygen, ozone, methane, and carbon dioxide, which could betray the presence of a habitable or even possibly inhabited atmosphere, though of course, individually none of these chemicals would provide definite proof for life. Today's episode was written by Ian O'Neill and produced by
Tristan McNeil No Relation. For more on this and lots of other extraterrestrial topics, visit our home planet pow staff works dot com.