Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren Vogel bomb here with a classic episode
Speaker 1: from our archives. Part of what makes the search for
Speaker 1: extraterrestrial life so difficult is that we only know about
Speaker 1: the kind of life that developed on Earth, and detecting
Speaker 1: planets that are vaguely like Earth is really hard. But
Speaker 1: today's episode has to do with just such a planet
Speaker 1: confirmed to be earthlike. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel bomb Here,
Speaker 1: a very special alien world has been discovered on our
Speaker 1: galactic doorstep, and it may have the secret sauce that
Speaker 1: allows life as we know it to exist on its surface.
Speaker 1: Enter Ross B, an Earth sized exoplanet that likely orbits
Speaker 1: its star in the habitable zone. What makes this exoplanet
Speaker 1: discovery so exciting is that it's located only eleven light
Speaker 1: years away. Plus it's red dwarf star appears to be inactive.
Speaker 1: That means that this newly discuss word world may not
Speaker 1: face the radioactive ravages that other EXE planets likely endure,
Speaker 1: thereby boosting its habitable potential. Astronomers detected Ross one B
Speaker 1: using the European Southern Observatories High accuracy radial velocity planet
Speaker 1: searcher A. K. A. Harps at the Lascia Observatory in Chile.
Speaker 1: They measured the slight wobbles of the star caused by
Speaker 1: the orbiting exoplanet. In a study published in the journal
Speaker 1: Astronomy and Astrophysics, the researchers calculated the exo planet's mass
Speaker 1: and orbital period. A year on Ross one B is
Speaker 1: slightly less than ten Earth days, so the distance at
Speaker 1: which it whips around its star is very close. But
Speaker 1: as the red dwarf is so tiny and cool, the
Speaker 1: exoplanet receives a similar amount of solar heating as our
Speaker 1: planet receives from the Sun. Red dwarfs are the most
Speaker 1: common type of star in our galaxy, and many are
Speaker 1: known to possess planetary systems. The closest star to our
Speaker 1: Solar system, Proximates Centauri, is a red dwarf, and in
Speaker 1: astronomers made the historic discovery of a small Earth sized
Speaker 1: exo planet in its orbit. That world, called Proxima B,
Speaker 1: is the closest habitable zone exo planet to us, and
Speaker 1: may even have a temperate atmosphere that could support an
Speaker 1: alien ecosystem. However, Proxima Centauri is a violent star that
Speaker 1: regularly erupts with powerful flares and pumps out X ray
Speaker 1: and ultra violet radiation, which tend to be deadly to
Speaker 1: life as we know it. If life could evolve on
Speaker 1: Proxima B, and that's a big if, the planet would
Speaker 1: need a very powerful magnetosphere, a global magnetic field, to
Speaker 1: deflect those powerful stellar winds and thus prevent its atmosphere
Speaker 1: from being stripped away and to prevent any life forms
Speaker 1: from being irradiated. Ross, on the other hand, lives next
Speaker 1: to an inactive red dwarf star one that isn't blasting
Speaker 1: local space with a massive dose of radiation. In fact,
Speaker 1: according to an E s O statement, Ross one is
Speaker 1: the quietest nearby star to host such a temperate exo planet.
Speaker 1: Despite being twenty times closer to its star than Earth
Speaker 1: is to the Sun, Ross only receives thirty eight percent
Speaker 1: more radiation. If it does have an atmosphere, life might
Speaker 1: have had an opportunity to gain a foothold without getting fried.
Speaker 1: Although radiation may not be a problem, orbiting so close
Speaker 1: to a red dwarf star presents a unique situation for
Speaker 1: habitable zone exoplanets like Ross. For example, researchers expect that
Speaker 1: the planet is tidally locked. Tidal locking occurs when a
Speaker 1: planet orbits close to its star, like the Moon is
Speaker 1: tidally locked with Earth. That's the reason why we only
Speaker 1: ever see one side of the Moon facing Us as
Speaker 1: it orbits the planet. Exoplanets with compact orbits are also
Speaker 1: expected to become tidally locked with their stars. One hemisphere
Speaker 1: is perpetually facing the star and the other hemisphere is
Speaker 1: always facing away. But this wouldn't necessarily be a death sentence.
Speaker 1: With the right atmosphere or proportion of land masses two oceans,
Speaker 1: heat from the star could be distributed from the planet's
Speaker 1: warm daylight side to the cool side in perpetual darkness.
Speaker 1: For now, However, though Ross is an exciting discovery, there's
Speaker 1: no way of knowing if the nearby world even possesses
Speaker 1: an atmosphere, let alone whether that hypothetical atmo sphere has
Speaker 1: the right chemical balance for life to thrive. In July,
Speaker 1: the air CBO radio telescope in Puerto Rico detected a
Speaker 1: mysterious low frequency signal emanating from the Ross system. Although
Speaker 1: there was some excitement for the possibility of a CETI
Speaker 1: like alien radio signal, astronomers think that this is the
Speaker 1: least likely explanation, favoring the detection of an as yet
Speaker 1: unexplained stellar phenomenon or a rogue signal from an orbiting satellite.
Speaker 1: When the next generation of ground and space based telescopes
Speaker 1: go online, such as the E S O S Extremely
Speaker 1: Large Telescope and NASA's James Webb Space Telescope us B,
Speaker 1: will become a prime target for astronomers to look for
Speaker 1: the spectroscopic clues of chemicals that could be produced by
Speaker 1: an alien biosphere. Telescopes like the Extremely Large Telescope will
Speaker 1: be on the lookout for water, a substance that is
Speaker 1: essential in its liquid form for all life as we
Speaker 1: know it, but also possible bio markers like dioxygen, ozone, methane,
Speaker 1: and carbon dioxide, which could betray the presence of a
Speaker 1: habitable or even possibly inhabited atmosphere, though of course, individually,
Speaker 1: none of these chemicals would provide definite proof for life.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Ian O'Neill and produced by
Speaker 1: Tristan McNeil and Tyler Clang. For more on this and
Speaker 1: lots of other far out topics, visit How Stuff Works
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