Könnte ein felsiger, erdähnlicher Planet in 40 Lichtjahren Entfernung nach Milliarden von Jahren noch über eine Atmosphäre verfügen?
Jason Dittmann, Assistenzprofessor für Astronomie an der University of Florida, entdeckte LHS 1140b, einen felsigen Exoplaneten in der bewohnbaren Zone eines nahegelegenen Sterns, und neue Beobachtungen mit dem Magellan Clay-Teleskop, bei denen austretendes Helium entdeckt wurde, deuten darauf hin, dass der Planet möglicherweise eine regenerierende Atmosphäre aufrechterhält.
https://news.ufl.edu/2026/07/exoplanet/
7 Kommentare
And guess what? It will still take us longer to get there than man’s civilization has existed.
[Here’s the scientific paper](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aea9708) in Science.
[Here’s the Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LHS_1140) on the red dwarf star.
This is a good update. From another article, it sounds like the nitrogen/carbon dioxide/water vapor atmosphere that was announced last time hasn’t been ruled out, but it could be under a helium envelope that’s almost gone. Hubble and Webb didn’t find that this planet had a puffy atmosphere, so whatever helium is there probably doesn’t make it a gas dwarf or something.
Only 40 light years you say?!
We can’t even send a tiny probe at 1/10th the speed of light, and that would take 400 years. So unless Proxima or Tau Ceti has life, that’s about it for us (and Proxima is one moody wench, too, so it’s unlikely).
Amaze! Amaze! Amaze! Fist My Bump
Helium on earth mainly comes from radioactive (alpha) decay within rocks, though.