![]() “Gliese 486b is the type of planet we’ll be studying for the next 20 years.”Ī planet’s atmosphere can reveal a lot about its ability to support life.įor example, a lack of atmosphere might suggest the planet’s nearby star is volatile and prone to high stellar activity - making it unlikely that life will have a chance to develop. “Understanding super-Earths is challenging because we don’t have any examples in our backyard,” said Montet. Super-Earths themselves are not rare, but Gliese 486b is special for two key reasons: firstly, its heat ‘puffs up’ the atmosphere, helping astronomers take atmospheric measurements and secondly, it’s a transiting planet, which means it crosses over its star from Earth’s perspective - making it possible for scientists to conduct in-depth analysis of its atmosphere. It is possible that its surface - which is hot enough to melt lead - may even be scattered with glowing lava rivers. It is 30 per cent bigger and almost three times heavier than Earth. Like Earth, Gliese 486b is a rocky planet - but that’s where the similarities end. “This finding has the potential to transform our understanding of planetary atmospheres.” ![]() “We’ve known for a long time that rocky super-Earths must exist around the nearby stars, but we haven’t had the technology to search for them until recently. “This is the kind of planet we’ve been dreaming about for decades,” said co-author of the study Ben Montet, Lecturer at University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney in Australia. ![]()
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