Astronomers Discover Earth-Like Planet Just 31 Light Years Away

A global team of 50 astronomers has confirmed the discovery of an exoplanet called Wolf 1069 b, which orbits a red dwarf star only 31 light-years from Earth. 

The team of scientists, led by Diana Kossakowski from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, said in a statement(Opens in a new window) that the exoplanet is likely “tidally locked to its path around the parent star” which means that one side is perpetually light, while the other side is always dark.  

Wolf 1069 b is believed to be about 1.26 the mass of Earth, which is rare given that of the more than 5000 exoplanets discovered to date, only 1.5% have masses below two Earths.

Speaking on the findings, Kossakowski said, “When we analyzed the data of the star Wolf 1069, we discovered a clear, low-amplitude signal of what appears to be a planet of roughly Earth mass. It orbits the star within 15.6 days at a distance equivalent to one-fifteenth of the separation between the Earth and the Sun.” 

Despite being much closer to its Sun than Earth is, Wolf 1069 b is still within a habitable zone because it receives 65% of the radiant power of what Earth obtains from the Sun. The red-dwarf star emits much less radiation, and has a cooler surface which makes it appear orange. 

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The scientists predicted that if the exoplanet has an Earth-like atmosphere, its mean temperature (on its star-facing side) might rise to as high as 55.13 F (12.85 Celsius), which is highly promising for life.

The planet was discovered by the CARMENES (Calar Alto High-Resolution Search for M Dwarfs with Exoearths with Near-infrared and Optical Échelle Spectographs) instrument on an 11.5 foot (3.5 meter) telescope at the Calar Alto Observatory in Spain. 

CARMENES discovered Wolf 1069 b using a detection method used to find exoplanets called radial velocity, which identifies and detects very subtle changes in a star’s location owing to the gravity of an orbiting planet.

Wolf 1069 b is regarded as the sixth closest Earth-mass habitable zone exoplanet; Proxima Centauri b is closest to Earth at 4.24 light years away, followed by GJ 1061d, Teegarden’s Star c, and GJ 1002 b and c. 

Current technology does not yet permit scientists to find out whether a planet actually hosts or hosted life, however. “We’ll probably have to wait another 10 years for this,” Kossakowski said. “Though it’s crucial we develop our facilities considering most of the closest potentially habitable worlds are detected via the RV [radial velocity] method only.”