A rocky, molten planet orbiting one of the oldest stars in the galaxy may be the best evidence of scientists that alien life originated in the distant past.
The planet, named TOI-561 b, is a “super-Earth” 280 light-years away. It is about 50% larger than our planet and three times its mass, but it is unlikely to provide life. It orbits so close to its star that the researchers who discovered it calculate that the surface temperature is more than 3000 degrees Fahrenheit, which changes the top layer of rock into molten magma.
But this super-Earth is much older than scientists previously expected for rocky planets, suggesting that other stars may have ancient Earth-like worlds with temperatures more suitable for life. Such planets may have existed twice as long as Earth, giving them plenty of time to support complex life and even intelligent civilizations.
The star orbiting TOI-561 b lies in the galaxy’s ‘thick disk’, the outer region above and below the flat surface containing most of the Milky Way’s material. Stars in the thick disk are about 10 billion years old, and scientists think that this planet is just as old.
“TOI-561 b is the first planet with a confirmed rocky composition around such an ancient star, indicating that for most of the history of the universe rocky planets have formed,” said Lauren Weiss, a postdoctoral fellow. at the University of Hawaii and the lead researcher in this discovery, said during a meeting of the American Astronomical Society “I just wonder if there is anyone we would like to talk to.”
The finding was published in The Astronomical Journal on Monday.
Earth-like planets almost as old as our galaxy
The astronomers could see how old the TOI-561 b is because the density of the planet is about the same as that of the earth, although its mass is three times greater. This means that it probably does not contain many heavy elements, such as iron or magnesium.
It took billions of years before the galaxy was filled with heavy elements, as it had to be forged deep into the stars. As the stars age, die and explode, these elements disperse and eventually merge into new planets. About ten billion years ago, heavy elements were sparse and planets were not very dense. This appears to be when TOI-561 b formed.
“Gosh, if we were only 5 billion years old, imagine what could have happened in a rocky world that has been around for ten billion years,” Weiss said.
Her team discovered TOI-561 b using the WM Keck Observatory at Maunakea in Hawaii. There are two other planets orbiting the star, but their large size and low mass indicate that they are gaseous, like Jupiter.
Hunting aliens can include fossils
This discovery contributes to a growing body of research suggesting that life on other planets could have evolved, technological civilizations could have evolved, and became extinct long before life on earth.
It can open up a whole new path in the search for extraterrestrial life. Instead of listening to messages from aliens looking for other intelligent lives, scientists may be more fortunate to search the air for fossils.
“If, in addition to the present, you look for evidence that things existed in the past, you have a greater chance of finding something,” Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb told Aylin Woodward of Insider
Loeb’s new book ‘Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth’ claims that the first interstellar visitor to pass the earth – a disk-shaped object called ‘Oumuamua’ – was an abolished piece of strange technology.
NASA’s next rover to Mars, Perseverance, is looking for its own remnants of past life. If the landing goes according to plan on February 18, the robot explorer will look for an old multi-bed for signs of Mars microbes that are long gone. It is ready to take samples of interesting rocks and dirt and set them aside for a later mission to bring back to earth.
As for the rest of the galaxy, current efforts are mostly aimed at finding more rocky planets that can have habitable temperatures, and then exploring their atmosphere for signs of life.
NASA’s $ 10 billion James Webb Space Telescope is expected to launch into Earth’s orbit on Halloween. The project aims to study each phase of the history of the universe and help reveal how the first stars and galaxies formed. By looking at other stars and planets in infrared light, JWST must be able to see the atmosphere of alien planets.
Other telescopes aimed at examining planets of the earth such as TOI-561 b have been proposed but not yet built. The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx) would for the first time directly represent the terrestrial planets. Another telescope concept, called the Large UV / Optical / IR Surveyor (LUVOIR), would also look for signs of habitability, or of life itself, on distant planets.
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