Space
Venus' 'Twin Planet' Could Still Have Oxygen, Scientists Say
Brooke James
First Posted: Aug 22, 2016 04:19 AM EDT
Nine months ago, astronomers announced that they were able to discover a planet that is said to be a twin to Venus. Today, it seems that a new study raises the possibility of the said planet to have oxygen in its atmosphere - don't mistake it for the next livable planet though - it is said to have hellish temperatures, which automatically rules out the possibility of life.
Dubbed the GJ 1132b, IFL Science noted that it is larger than Earth in size and mass. Temperature-wise, it is considerably hot at 120 to 320 degrees Celsius, but it is still considered cooler than most of the rocky planets previously detected.
The GJ 1132b orbits around 2.2 million kilometers from its star, about 1.5 percent of the Earth-Sun distance. Its parental star, the GJ 1132, is a red dwarf planet just a fifth of the sun's mass, but is more exposed to light than the earth. While undoubtedly hot, wide estimates of its temperature show that it could reflect a Venus-style runaway greenhouse effect.
Phys.org explained it this way: with the planet orbiting so close to its star, it is flooded with ultraviolet light. The light then breaks apart water molecules to hydrogen and oxygen, both of which can be lost into space. However, the fact that hydrogen is lighter means that it escapes more readily, while the oxygen lingers far behind.
"On cooler planets, oxygen could be a sign of alien life and habitability. But on a hot planet like GJ 1132b, it's a sign of the exact opposite - a planet that's being baked and sterilized," said Harvard astronomer Laura Schaefer, who studied the planet on the implication that it began with a steamy, water-rich atmosphere.
This then makes it similar to venus - with the water vapor being a greenhouse gas, the planet is expected to have a strong greenhouse effect, amplifying its star's already intense heat - leaving the surface molten for millions of years.
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First Posted: Aug 22, 2016 04:19 AM EDT
Nine months ago, astronomers announced that they were able to discover a planet that is said to be a twin to Venus. Today, it seems that a new study raises the possibility of the said planet to have oxygen in its atmosphere - don't mistake it for the next livable planet though - it is said to have hellish temperatures, which automatically rules out the possibility of life.
Dubbed the GJ 1132b, IFL Science noted that it is larger than Earth in size and mass. Temperature-wise, it is considerably hot at 120 to 320 degrees Celsius, but it is still considered cooler than most of the rocky planets previously detected.
The GJ 1132b orbits around 2.2 million kilometers from its star, about 1.5 percent of the Earth-Sun distance. Its parental star, the GJ 1132, is a red dwarf planet just a fifth of the sun's mass, but is more exposed to light than the earth. While undoubtedly hot, wide estimates of its temperature show that it could reflect a Venus-style runaway greenhouse effect.
Phys.org explained it this way: with the planet orbiting so close to its star, it is flooded with ultraviolet light. The light then breaks apart water molecules to hydrogen and oxygen, both of which can be lost into space. However, the fact that hydrogen is lighter means that it escapes more readily, while the oxygen lingers far behind.
"On cooler planets, oxygen could be a sign of alien life and habitability. But on a hot planet like GJ 1132b, it's a sign of the exact opposite - a planet that's being baked and sterilized," said Harvard astronomer Laura Schaefer, who studied the planet on the implication that it began with a steamy, water-rich atmosphere.
This then makes it similar to venus - with the water vapor being a greenhouse gas, the planet is expected to have a strong greenhouse effect, amplifying its star's already intense heat - leaving the surface molten for millions of years.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone