NASA Hubble Closes Rocky Planet with ‘Tantalizing Parallels To Earth’ – And It Comes Back From The Dead

Can later-growing planets be inhabited again? After being taken to heart by the intense heat of the star, a 41-year-old exoplanet shows signs of getting a second sensation – through volcanic activity.

Called GJ 1132 b, the planet was explored by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope for a paper soon to be published in The Astronomical Journal.

It has been said that there are tantalizing parallels to the Earth, here is everything you need to know about GJ 1132 b ‚a single-aquatic planet with a density, size and age similar to Earth.

What and where is GJ 1132 b?

GJ 1132 b is a 4.5 billion year old exoplanet orbiting a light 41 year old red star from the Solar System. It completes one orbit of its star every 1.5 days from very close to the star. In addition to once having a full hydrogen feel, the team’s work also suggests an atmospheric pressure similar to GJ 1132 b and the Earth at the surface.

His theoretical loss of one atmosphere and the victory of a new one could have a major impact on the discovery of Earth 2.0 – and potential life outside the Solar System.

MORE FROM FORBESFound: Planet Near Us with Day Forever and Eternal Night Spelled by the Explosion of Volcanoes

What happened to GJ 1132 b

From its beginnings as a larger-than-Earth “sub-Neptune” gaseous world with a thick feel of hydrogen and helium, GJ 1132 seems to have been removed by intense radiation from its host star into a bare heart. about the same size and density as the Earth.

Now it is restoring a second feeling – and that is a big surprise to astronauts.

“At first we thought these radiation-filled planets would be very sad because we believed they lost their atmospheres,” said a member of the Raissa Estrela team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at the Institute California Technologies in Pasadena, California, USA. “But we looked at the existing ideas on this planet with Hubble and realized that there is a feeling.”

Fresh volcanic air?

Hubble has just discovered a secondary atmosphere around GJ 1132 b. Rich in hydrogen, hydrogen cyanide, methane and ammonia – and with smog-like smoke of hydrocarbons – the “fresh” atmosphere around GJ 1132 b has an interesting origin.

The paper claims that some of the hydrogen in the original atmosphere may have been absorbed into the planet’s molten magma molecule. Now volcanoes are erupting to create a new environment.

MORE FROM FORBESWhy we need a ‘Moon Ark’ to store seeds, sperm and frozen eggs from 6.7 million earth species

The discovery is based on a combination of ideas and decision making through computer modeling.

“This second feeling comes from the surface and inside of the planet, so it’s a window on the geology of another world,” said team member Paul Rimmer of Cambridge University in the UK. “A lot more work needs to be done to look through it, but finding this window is very important.”

Why a planet with a sense of ‘renewal’ is important

“How many terrestrial planets don’t start as terrestrial areas? Some can start as sub-Neptunes, and grow terrestrial through a device that takes pictures of the private atmosphere. This process works early in the life of a planet, when the star is warmer, ”said lead author Mark Swain of JPL. “Then the star cools and the planet is just sitting there. So you have this equipment where you can cook the feeling in the first 100 million years, and then things will settle. And if you can renew the feeling, you may be able to keep it. ”

MORE FROM FORBESPublished: NASA’s Daring Mission to explore an ocean of lava on Jupiter’s volcanic moon

Why GJ 1132 b is so hot

For a planet or moon to be geologically active, “tidal heating” – formation – must be created when energy from orbit and its circulation is distributed as internal heat. The compression and stretching keep the liquid melting.

A similar situation plays out at Io, an active volcanic moon around Jupiter, where a tidal tug-of-war from Jupiter and the nearby branches make it the world’s most active volcanic system in Jupiter. of the Sun. What is happening on Io now compares to what has happened in the past on Earth, such as the massive eruption of lava associated with four out of five plantings out big.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

.Source