New planet likely to support human life discovered ‘near’ Earth by British scientists

British scientists have discovered a new planet that could potentially support human life and it’s not that far away…relatively speaking.

The temperature on Gliese 12b is around 42°C, which means it could be habitable. In fact, it’s one of the few known planets where humans could theoretically survive.

“It would be uncomfortable for a human, but the way we define ‘habitability’ is that liquid water could exist on the surface of the planet, which is possible in this case,” says Larissa Palethorpe of the University of Washington. Edinburgh.

Ms Palethorpe and a team of scientists from around the world used from NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, known as TESS, to spot the planet orbiting its star. It took them less than a year to calculate its size, temperature and movement.

“Smaller planets are really hard to find,” Ms Palethorpe said. “We want to know more about Earth-sized planets to understand how many other Earths exist.

“Detecting one so close is really exciting because it allows us to do a follow-up analysis of the atmosphere, so we’ll be able to learn a lot more about it.”

Gliese 12b is relatively close in spatial terms, only 40 light years away. However, according to Ms Palethorpe, it would take our fastest spacecraft around 300,000 years to get there.

The planet, which is about the same size as Venus, orbits its sun every 12.8 days. The sun, called Gliese 12, is a cool red dwarf located in the constellation Pisces.

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“The light we see now is from 40 years ago – that’s how long it took to reach us here on Earth,” said Professor Thomas Wilson of Warwick, who was involved in the discovery.

“Planets like Gliese 12b are rare, so for us to be able to examine one this closely and learn about its atmosphere and temperature is very rare.”

The next step will be for the team to examine the planet’s atmosphere and find out if it is similar to Earth’s.

“It could actually be a planet without an atmosphere, which would mean it would not be habitable,” Ms Palethorpe said.

“Ideally for habitability, you want a thin atmosphere – planets with thick atmospheres tend to be too hot. It might look like clouds, it might be hazy, or there might just be no atmosphere at all .”