A Potentially Habitable Planet Found 40 Light-Years from Earth

Scientists have discovered a potentially habitable planet roughly the size of Earth. Gliese 12b is located at a distance of 40 light-years from Earth.

An international team of researchers, led by doctoral students from Queensland and Scotland, discovered the potentially habitable planet Gliese 12b. One of the co-authors of the discovery is a student from an Australian university, Shishir Dholakia, a Ph.D. candidate in astrophysics.

The findings of the researchers' work have been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

According to the scientists, preliminary investigations have shown that the air temperature on the newfound planet allows water to accumulate on its surface.

"It's important because we believe planets are potentially suitable for life if they can have liquid water. So, in this great search for life that we're undertaking, we want to try and find planets that are potentially suitable for life, and this might be a good candidate," said Shishir Dholakia to The Guardian.

It is noted that the planet Gliese 12b is approximately the size of Earth or slightly smaller, like Venus. Its surface temperature is estimated to be a pleasant 42°C.

Its 12-day orbit revolves around Gliese 12, a cold red dwarf in the Pisces constellation. Gliese 12 is approximately a quarter the size of the Sun and has a temperature of about 60% of its surface.

"Gliese 12b is just 40 light-years away from us, and that may not mean we can actually get there anytime soon, but it means we can point the biggest telescopes in the world at it and figure out what its atmosphere is like," the scientist stated.

NASA has already announced that Gliese 12b is a good candidate for further study using the James Webb Space Telescope.