Harvard astrophysicist talks new Earth-like planet and possibility of atmosphere

[00:00:00]Tonight, in the future of everything, we're going inter- interplanetary, if you will. Just a hop, skip, and a jump away, about 25 light-years or so from Earth, sits this guy. This is GJ 3378b, or Super-Earth, as they call it. And it's got the Goldilocks recipe, not too hot, not too cold, just the right temperature where liquid water can actually exist. So, we're back to my favorite question, is there life beyond Earth? Joining us now is our favorite interplanetary expert, Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb. Dr. Loeb, great to see you. So, what are the chances that there's life on this planet?

[00:00:39]>> Well, thanks for having me. Uh this planet um is at the right distance from this red dwarf, but the fundamental question is, does it have an atmosphere?

[00:00:49]And uh the reason it's a question is because we're talking about a faint star that has only uh about a percent of the solar luminosity, and so the habitable zone around it, where the illumination of the surface of the planet is just sufficient to maintain liquid water, is much closer in. We are talking about uh a planet that is orbiting with 21.5 days as its year. So, it's very close in.

[00:01:21]Uh and at that distance, the question is, can it retain an atmosphere? Because uh those red dwarf stars uh they flare a lot, and uh the stellar wind and the flares from the star can easily strip uh the atmosphere. So, calculations show that it's on the borderline of being able to sustain its atmosphere. So, we don't know. And the fundamental question is, does it have an atmosphere, and can we find out about it?

[00:01:50]>> Yeah, we we don't give enough credit to our protective force field that we They will as our atmosphere here. Speaking of globes and orbs and also other cosmic mysteries, I couldn't help but notice there was a new post that you put up talking about maybe the intersection of of UAP, UFOs, and then ball lightning.

[00:02:10]You're heading up the new science advisory council on all things UAP, UFO.

[00:02:14]Well, solve this. I'm sure a lot of people are talking about this, but are UAP orbs maybe ball lightning?

[00:02:22]>> Well, it's interesting that two possible origins of unknown balls of light. One is indeed ball lightning and for centuries these were dismissed by the mainstream of the scientific community until 2012 where in a spectrum of such a ball lightning was taken by chance in China and that illustrated that it's made mostly of silicon and may >> We thank you for watching and remember stay updated on breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or watch live on our YouTube channel.