About 39 light years away from the Earth, stands a planet that has been found to have a lot of similarities with our home planet. The GJ1132b has similar size and mass to that of the Earth, and recently it has been discovered that it also has an atmosphere similar to ours.
Features of GJ 1132b
This discovery suggests that there can be millions of such planets orbiting a dwarf star. However its close proximity to its sun also suggests that it could be more like the Venus than Earth. Astronomers suspect that the temperature of the planet may be close to 370 degree Celsius. One other feature that differentiates it from our home planet that its gravity is such that it keeps one side of it constantly facing its star, blazing one side whilst keeping the other in complete darkness.
These findings render the possibility of a human habitation impossible on the planet.
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf stars like this star are present in large numbers in the universe known to mankind. This leaves the question that if one such star has a planet with an atmosphere, then could there be more.
Life on other planets
For years scientists and astronomers have researched about life elsewhere in the universe, and this is one of the signs that suggest some truth in the assumption.
Chilean astronomers have also discovered that the planet’s light diminishes by 3 percent in every 1.6 days. this sheds some light on the speed of GJ 1132b’s speed of orbiting.
Astronomers are working on finding ‘biosignatures’ that could suggest the presence of life on it, but there has been little success so far. It is likely that the GJ 1132b does not have any life on it, but it also goes a long way in confirming the belief that there may be life elsewhere in this universe.
