Eyeball Planet Older Than Earth Reveals Hidden Atmosphere | WION Podcast

[00:00:00]Welcome to the We on podcast, where we explore fascinating stories and ideas from various fields. In this episode, we uncover how a mysterious eyeball Earth, older than our own planet and leaking helium, may possess an atmosphere that challenges what scientists know about distant worlds.

[00:00:20]This distant world is now offering scientists a rare glimpse into how rocky planets can retain the conditions needed for habitability.

[00:00:29]A planet with an atmosphere detected 48 light years from Earth in the first of its kind discovery.

[00:00:37]An atmosphere is essential for a planet to support life as we know it, lead author Colin Cherubim said.

[00:00:45]LHS 1140b is an Earth-like rocky planet orbiting a red dwarf within the habitable zone.

[00:00:52]The discovery is evidence that it is possible that other planets outside the solar system could harbor conditions for life. Astronomers have till now found more than 6,000 planets orbiting other stars, but never has one displayed a stable atmosphere.

[00:01:09]The research was published in Science.

[00:01:12]This is the first time anyone has found an atmosphere on a rocky planet in the habitable zone of another star, Cherubim said.

[00:01:20]The study notes that the rocky planet is leaking helium gas into space, which shows it has held onto its atmosphere even billions of years after it was born.

[00:01:31]The exciting part about this paper and why I think it was accepted into Science was that this is the first time that we're seeing a rocky Earth-like planet that could still have an atmosphere, University of Florida assistant professor of astronomy Jason Dittmann, who first discovered the planet in 2016 said.

[00:01:51]The Magellan Clay Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory detected helium escaping from the planet.

[00:01:57]Cherubim and the theoretical model created by his team predicted that LHS 1140b has an upper atmosphere rich in helium.

[00:02:07]Dittmann says the rocky world should have a temperature similar to Earth's.

[00:02:11]There is a second planet in the system, LHS 1140c.

[00:02:16]It is located outside the system's habitable zone and doesn't have an atmosphere.

[00:02:22]Several rocky exoplanets have been discovered in the past. However, all of them lost their atmosphere at some point in time.

[00:02:30]But not LHS 1140b.

[00:02:33]It has been around for nearly 5 billion years, but the helium has persisted. All of it would have been lost had it not been replenishing its own supply.

[00:02:42]Clearly a sign that an atmosphere is present on this world. Cherubim now wants to study the complete composition of this planet and later investigate whether it has surface oceans or other signs that it could support life. Thanks for tuning in to this incredible story.

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