A team of astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (USA) has located a total of eight new planets in the area known as “Goldilocks” (Goldilocks) within the stellar habitable space, of which two of them are very similar to Earth; in fact, these are the exoplanets that currently most resemble the Earth of all those identified so far .
The two candidate exoplanets are: Kepler-438b and Kepler-442b, which are 470 and 1,100 light years away, respectively, and whose atmospheric pressure could support liquid water on their surface . They both orbit red dwarf stars that are smaller and also cooler than our Sun. Thus, Kepler.438b orbits its star every 35 days and Kepler-442b every 112 days.
” Most of these planets have a good chance of being rocky like Earth, ” explains Guillermo Torres, leader of the study. And, according to the scientists’ calculations, the first one has a 70% chance of being rocky while the second, Kepler 442-b, has a 60% chance of having rocks.
“In our calculations we chose to adopt the widest possible limits that could plausibly lead to conditions suitable for life. We do not know for sure if some of the planets in the sample are habitable, but they are promising candidates , ”explains Torres.
The calculations have been carried out thanks to the BLENDER computer program that runs from NASA’s Pleiades supercomputer.
Image credit: David Aguilar
