A schematic of the planets around the nearby M dwarf star TOI-700, discovered |
The first habitable-zone Earth-sized planet has found by TESS
The first habitable-zone Earth-sized planet has found by TESS ( Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) has been found the Earth-sized exoplanet at the habitable zone of the star. The star is an M-type star, what surface temperature is about 3000 kelvin and that means the planet is locked, and it turns always the same side to the star. The name of the planet is TOI-700d, and the planet is a potential host for life. So the name of the star is TOI-700 and there are three planets. The surface temperature of TOI-700d is about 268 kelvin (-5,5 C).
If there is liquid water on the surface of that planet, it would create clouds, what might keep its surface temperature lower at the dayside, and if there is an atmosphere, what is another requirement for the life, that means that the cold nightside will cool the temperature of the planet. So there is a possibility that the planet is hosting some kind of lifeforms.
When we are thinking about the M-type dwarfs the planets of their habitable zone are locked. The M-type stars are also flare-stars, which means that they are erupting sometimes very hard. But the fact is that those planets that are hosting life should have an atmosphere, liquid water, and magnetic field.
So the clouds that are rising from the water are cooling the dayside. And the freezing nightside can keep the temperature of that planet lower. The last thing is that the magnetic field would also push the particles coming from the star away from the surface of that planet. The flares of the flare stars are seeming impressive, but the eruptions are not lasting a very long time. And the surface temperature of the star is very low, so we cannot just copy the data of the Sun to that star and its planets.
https://phys.org/news/2020-10-habitable-zone-earth-sized-planet-exoplanet-survey.html
TOI-700d: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOI_700_d
Image: https://phys.org/news/2020-10-habitable-zone-earth-sized-planet-exoplanet-survey.html
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