WEBVTT - Could This Newly Discovered Planet Harbor Life?

0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:07.360
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff from how Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,

0:00:07.440 --> 0:00:10.720
<v Speaker 1>luring vogel Bomb. Here, a very special alien world has

0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:13.600
<v Speaker 1>been discovered on our galactic doorstep, and it may have

0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:16.000
<v Speaker 1>the secret sauce that allows life as we know it

0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:20.479
<v Speaker 1>to exist on its surface. Enter Ross B, an Earth

0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:24.360
<v Speaker 1>sized exoplanet that likely orbits its star in the habitable zone.

0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:27.520
<v Speaker 1>What makes this exoplanet discovery so exciting is that it's

0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:30.920
<v Speaker 1>located only eleven light years away, Plus it's red dwarf

0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:33.880
<v Speaker 1>star appears to be inactive. That means that this newly

0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:37.080
<v Speaker 1>discovered world may not face the radioactive ravages that other

0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:42.640
<v Speaker 1>exoplanets likely endure, thereby boosting its habitable potential. Astronomers detected

0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:47.480
<v Speaker 1>Ross one using the European Southern Observatories High accuracy radial

0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:51.199
<v Speaker 1>velocity planet searcher A K. A. Harps at the Lascia

0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:54.720
<v Speaker 1>Observatory in Chile. They measured the slight wobbles of the

0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:58.080
<v Speaker 1>star caused by the orbiting exoplanet. In a study published

0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:01.080
<v Speaker 1>in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, the researchers calculated the

0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:04.520
<v Speaker 1>exo planet's mass and orbital period. A year on Ross

0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:08.080
<v Speaker 1>B is slightly less than ten earth days, so the

0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:10.920
<v Speaker 1>distance at which it whips around its star is very close.

0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:13.360
<v Speaker 1>But as the red dwarf is so tiny and cool,

0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:16.240
<v Speaker 1>the exoplanet receives a similar amount of solar heating as

0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:18.920
<v Speaker 1>our planet receives from the Sun. Red dwarfs are the

0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:21.520
<v Speaker 1>most common type of star in our galaxy, and many

0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:24.520
<v Speaker 1>are known to possess planetary systems. The closest star to

0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:27.399
<v Speaker 1>our Solar system, Proximus Centauri, is a red dwarf, and

0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:31.360
<v Speaker 1>in astronomers made the historic discovery of a small Earth

0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:34.800
<v Speaker 1>sized exoplanet in its orbit. That world, called Proxima B,

0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:37.800
<v Speaker 1>is the closest habitable zone exo planet to us, and

0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:40.160
<v Speaker 1>may even have a temperate atmosphere that could support an

0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:44.760
<v Speaker 1>alien ecosystem. However, Proxima Centauri is a violent star that

0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:48.280
<v Speaker 1>regularly erupts with powerful flares and pumps out X ray

0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:51.240
<v Speaker 1>and ultra violet radiation, which tend to be deadly to

0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:53.520
<v Speaker 1>life as we know it. If life could evolve on

0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:56.600
<v Speaker 1>Proxima B, and that's a big if, the planet would

0:01:56.640 --> 0:02:00.360
<v Speaker 1>need a very powerful magnetosphere a global magnetic feeld to

0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:03.880
<v Speaker 1>deflect those powerful stellar winds and thus prevent its atmosphere

0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:06.640
<v Speaker 1>from being stripped away and to prevent any life forms

0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:11.079
<v Speaker 1>from being irradiated. Ross, on the other hand, lives next

0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:14.079
<v Speaker 1>to an inactive red dwarf star one that isn't blasting

0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:17.120
<v Speaker 1>local space with a massive dose of radiation. In fact,

0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:20.079
<v Speaker 1>according to an E. S O statement, Ross one is

0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:23.359
<v Speaker 1>the quietest nearby star to host such a temperate exoplanet.

0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:26.440
<v Speaker 1>Despite being twenty times closer to its star than Earth

0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:30.080
<v Speaker 1>is to the Sun, Ross only receives thirty eight percent

0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:33.720
<v Speaker 1>more radiation. If it does have an atmosphere, life might

0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:36.600
<v Speaker 1>have had an opportunity to gain a foothold without getting fried.

0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:40.120
<v Speaker 1>Although radiation may not be a problem, orbiting so close

0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:42.720
<v Speaker 1>to a red dwarf star presents a unique situation for

0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:48.400
<v Speaker 1>habitable zone exoplanets like Ross. For example, researchers expect that

0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:52.280
<v Speaker 1>the planet is tidally locked. Tidal locking occurs when a

0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:55.079
<v Speaker 1>planet orbits close to its star, like the Moon is

0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:57.880
<v Speaker 1>tidally locked with Earth. That's the reason why we only

0:02:57.880 --> 0:02:59.840
<v Speaker 1>ever see one side of the Moon facing Us as

0:02:59.880 --> 0:03:03.560
<v Speaker 1>it orbits the planet. Exoplanets with compact orbits are also

0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:07.239
<v Speaker 1>expected to become tidally locked with their stars. One hemispheres

0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:10.519
<v Speaker 1>perpetually facing the star and the other hemisphere is always

0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:14.600
<v Speaker 1>facing away, but this wouldn't necessarily be a death sentence.

0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:18.320
<v Speaker 1>With the right atmosphere or proportion of land masses two oceans,

0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:20.880
<v Speaker 1>heat from the star could be distributed from the planet's

0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:24.120
<v Speaker 1>warm daylight side to the cool side in perpetual darkness.

0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:28.840
<v Speaker 1>For now, however, though ROSS is an exciting discovery, there's

0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:31.359
<v Speaker 1>no way of knowing if the nearby world even possesses

0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:34.880
<v Speaker 1>an atmosphere, let alone whether that hypothetical atmosphere has the

0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:38.200
<v Speaker 1>right chemical balance for life to thrive. In July, the

0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:41.760
<v Speaker 1>air Cebo radio telescope in Puerto Rico detected a mysterious

0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:46.240
<v Speaker 1>low frequency signal emanating from the ROSS system. Although there

0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:48.720
<v Speaker 1>was some excitement for the possibility of a SETI like

0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:51.720
<v Speaker 1>alien radio signal, stromers think that this is the least

0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:55.200
<v Speaker 1>likely explanation, favoring the detection of an as yet unexplained

0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:58.320
<v Speaker 1>stellar phenomenon or a rogue signal from an orbiting satellite.

0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:02.280
<v Speaker 1>When the next ration of ground and space based telescopes

0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:04.880
<v Speaker 1>go online, such as the E s O S Extremely

0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:08.720
<v Speaker 1>Large Telescope and NASA's James Webb Space Telescope for US,

0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:12.320
<v Speaker 1>will become a prime target for astronomers to look for

0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:15.160
<v Speaker 1>the spectroscopic clues of chemicals that could be produced by

0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:19.400
<v Speaker 1>an alien biosphere. Telescopes like the Extremely Large Telescope will

0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:21.800
<v Speaker 1>be on the lookout for water, a substance that is

0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:24.160
<v Speaker 1>essential in its liquid form for all life as we

0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:28.240
<v Speaker 1>know it, but also possible bio markers like dioxygen, ozone, methane,

0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:31.160
<v Speaker 1>and carbon dioxide, which could betray the presence of a

0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:36.160
<v Speaker 1>habitable or even possibly inhabited atmosphere, though of course, individually

0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:41.919
<v Speaker 1>none of these chemicals would provide definite proof for life.

0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:47.760
<v Speaker 1>Today's episode was written by Ian O'Neill and produced by

0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:50.680
<v Speaker 1>Tristan McNeil No Relation. For more on this and lots

0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:54.040
<v Speaker 1>of other extraterrestrial topics, visit our home planet pow staff

0:04:54.040 --> 0:05:04.839
<v Speaker 1>works dot com.