One-third of the common planets in the Milky Way may be located in the habitable zone

Tech 2023-06-02 08:48:04 Source: Network

Science and Technology Daily News (Reporter Liu Xia) - American astronomers reported in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on May 29th that in an analysis based on the latest telescope data, they found that one-third of the most common planets in the Milky Way may be located in orbits close enough to their main star and at a comfortable temperature, which may contain liquid water and thus potentially harbor life.Sarah Ballard, a professor of astronomy at the University of Florida and the latest research leader, explained that the sun is relatively rare in the Milky Way

Science and Technology Daily News (Reporter Liu Xia) - American astronomers reported in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on May 29th that in an analysis based on the latest telescope data, they found that one-third of the most common planets in the Milky Way may be located in orbits close enough to their main star and at a comfortable temperature, which may contain liquid water and thus potentially harbor life.

Sarah Ballard, a professor of astronomy at the University of Florida and the latest research leader, explained that the sun is relatively rare in the Milky Way. Currently, the most common M dwarfs in the Milky Way are much smaller and cooler than the sun, with a maximum mass of only half that of the sun. There are billions of moving stars orbiting around these common dwarfs.

In the latest study, Ballard and his colleagues measured the eccentricity of more than 150 planets around these M dwarfs. If a planet's orbit is close enough to the main star and its orbit is irregular, the gravitational force generated by the main star will constantly change, causing it to stretch and deform. This repeated friction causes the surface temperature of the planet to rise, and in extreme cases, even "grill" the planet, making it impossible for liquid water to exist on it.

The research data comes from NASA's Johannes Kepler telescope, which can capture the information of exoplanets moving in front of the main star. The latest research also relies on new data from the Gaia Telescope, which can measure the distance between billions of stars in the Milky Way.

The research team found that two-thirds of the planets around these small stars may be "barren" because of the tidal force of the main star, but the remaining one-third of the planets may be located in habitable zones. Moreover, stars with multiple planets are most likely to have circular orbits that can retain liquid water, while stars with only one planet are most likely to experience extreme tidal phenomena.

The latest research results are very important for the study of exoplanets in the next decade, indicating that there may be hundreds of millions of targets in the Milky Way for scientists to detect signs of life.

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