Scientists Discover Earth-Like 'Potentially Habitable' Planet

Is HD 137010 b a habitable Earth twin or just another rocky exoplanet in the habitable zone?

Published JAN 29

Scientists Discover Earth-Like 'Potentially Habitable' Planet

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Above: An artist's rendering of a planet in space. Image credit: Unsplash

The Spin

HD 137010 b is an exoplanet candidate orbiting a dim star that provides less than one-third of Earth’s heat. As a result, surface temperatures could plunge to around −70°C, making habitability unlikely. With only limited observations so far, further monitoring is essential to confirm the planet's existence and true characteristics over time ahead.

NASA Science India Today

HD 137010 b stands as the perfect target for future life-detection telescopes. Unlike rocky planets around tempestuous M-dwarf stars that blast away atmospheres, this world orbits a calmer Sun-like star, far more likely to sustain an atmosphere based on current models. Astronomers have ruled out alternatives, making this the ideal candidate already known to exist.

Iopscience Science Daily Galaxy

Metaculus Prediction

There's a 23% chance that any conclusive evidence for extraterrestrial life, past or present, will be discovered within our Solar System by 2050, according to the Metaculus prediction community.