🌍 Nearby super-Earth with an atmosphere and... water?

It's confirmed: a planet located only 49 light-years away does indeed have an atmosphere. Named LHS 1140 b, it orbits within the habitable zone of a small red dwarf star.

LHS 1140 b is what is known as a super-Earth: its radius is about 1.7 times that of our planet and its mass is nearly 5.6 times greater. Available data indicate a rocky composition, possibly accompanied by a significant amount of water.

Size comparison of two planets of LHS 1140, including LHS 1140 b (artist's concept) with Earth.

Size comparison of two planets of LHS 1140, including LHS 1140 b (artist's concept) with Earth.
Illustration Wikimedia

To detect its atmosphere, astronomers observed the planet as it passed in front of its star. A portion of the starlight then passes through the gases. Each chemical element absorbs certain wavelengths, leaving a measurable signature in the light spectrum.

The researchers thus detected helium escaping from the upper atmosphere of LHS 1140 b. The signal was recorded in 2024 using the Magellan Clay telescope, located in Chile.

A new campaign conducted the following year did not find this signal; this difference could stem from variable atmospheric escape. Nevertheless, the authors consider the initial observations to be a solid detection. The helium would form the upper part of a denser gas envelope.

This discovery does not yet formally prove the presence of liquid water, although evidence is increasingly consistent. The composition of the lower atmospheric layers remains unknown: they could contain nitrogen, carbon dioxide, oxygen, or water vapor, among others.

The very existence of this atmosphere, however, represents important information. LHS 1140 is a red dwarf, a category of stars that can produce intense ultraviolet radiation. This can progressively strip away the gases surrounding nearby planets, especially during the early phases of their evolution.

LHS 1140 b shows that a rocky planet located in this region can retain a gas envelope for several billion years. Future observations will now need to clarify its composition and pressure. This planet thus becomes a priority target for studying the conditions necessary for liquid water outside the Solar System.

MA
Mario

"Close", you say, at 49 light-years? At the current time, it takes humans about 20,000 years to travel a single light-year, or 980,000 for 49. Let's stop dreaming and protect the little gem we have and call Earth!

CA
Cathy

It is true that 100,000 years ago, we only had our paws to move around. Who would have thought then that we could come to know other planets? The wheel turns, and sometimes it turns fast...

BL
Blandine

Let's stop believing that we can migrate to another planet
The millions and the energy you spend should instead serve to protect the Earth, which is the only planet where we can live and that we are destroying faster and faster

Anonymous

Super Earth? Let's spread controlled democracy!!! ⬆️➡️⬇️⬇️⬇️

LO
LoGikWulfy

  1. 49 light-years = 463,575 billion km = extremely far. With the fastest spacecraft (Parker Solar Probes), it's a 76,473-year journey; by rocket, it's 1.5 million years.

  2. Large mass = accumulation of light molecules = poisoned planet = probably a helium atmosphere.

  3. Rotation in 130 days, orbiting in 25 days around a red dwarf; I won't tell you about the weather, about -40°C on the "hot" side exposed to its star.

Extremely hostile planet for life

YA
Yahmin

What are these stupid comments? 49 light-years on the scale of the universe is extremely close. No one mentioned any idea of going there; they aren't studying interstellar space to go live there, think a little, the implications are technological, we are not in Star Wars...

Anonymous

So looking forward to destroying these pathetic automatons

CA
Cathy type 1

To return to extra-galactic travels, beyond science fiction. One can believe that current research is also motivated by a desire for conquest and even territorial expansion... It is somewhat human and historical. No need to boast, these conquest voyages will be made one step at a time, provided the human race survives and its technological civilization(s) are preserved.

CA
Cathy type 2

Otherwise you can clearly see that a few generations will pass before great departures, that's certain. But nothing is impossible with time... And we could be helped by intelligence or other extraterrestrial intelligences. For now, nothing of the future is known. And all scenarios are equally plausible. Just time to gain and generations to preserve. Except for catastrophes, all are equally imaginable...

Anonymous

Fortunately humans can't go there

Anonymous

anyway, it's got people talking a bit. spread out on my sofa and tell me about it, I'm listening.

Anonymous

it feels good to talk about it a bit, it feels good to chat a little for no reason. what's the deal, is there water over there? and at least the air is breathable. actually, it's a waste of time. these nerds have gone too far, they're destroying our planet. we should give them a few hits on the head like back in school.

TI
Titi

Very beautiful sentence Mario....Let's protect the little gem we have...🌍
Here is one of the priorities we should focus on and move forward with...
We're trying a bit in our own way... 😊

Anonymous

Marion, instead of talking nonsense, you should do some research; it is thanks to space technology that the vast majority of recyclable and ultra-modern technologies for planetary preservation exist today. I want to remind you that the goal in space is to consume as little as possible and to reuse and recycle as much as possible.

LO
LoGikWulfy

2 things bother me about this kind of article.
1- implying that 49 light-years is close because "on the scale of the universe" provides misleading information for an uneducated audience who might think humanity is going to conquer the universe.
2- making people believe that the future of humanity is in space in the more or less long term is complete nonsense.

Science should not sell dreams; our resources are limited for our survival on Earth and our development.

LO
LoGikWulfy

Warning, it is not space research that is causing me problems.
To date, annual investments for space are about 15 times lower than those for the protection of our planet.
However, investments for ecology still remain 2 to 3 times lower than the actual needs to meet the objectives and be truly effective.
Science (and its popularization) must ensure that for the centuries to come, we really only have Earth.

Anonymous

Life on Earth developed even before the atmosphere was oxygenated. It's incredible what is possible.
It's just at 50 light-years, with the infinite number of stars and galaxies, I believe in it, there are so many possibilities that I believe... After, we might not find it. But it's possible.

NA
Nadine

In any case, we have no choice! If we think in terms of billions of years, we will eventually have to travel through space. No point in hiding it with occult 'yes-men'...

Anonymous

I have been passionate about space since my childhood and I love Star Wars, but in terms of science, I don't think you realize.

The technological leap to leave our solar system is not huge; it is unimaginable.

We talk about colonizing Mars and we still don't know how to handle solar winds and radiation.

And no, the universe resulting from the Big Bang is not infinite; it has an age and a finite number of stars. When we do the calculations, abiogenesis tends toward the impossible.

Anonymous

This makes it all the more important to protect the Earth while we explore the rest of the Universe 😊