James Webb Space Telescope Finds New Planets! Could They Harbor Life?

[Music] thanks to the James web Space Telescope a discovery that seemed ordinary at first is now turning into something extraordinary meet LHS 1140b a super Earth in the constellation cetus that might just be our next best hope for finding life beyond Earth astronomers at the University of Montreal are super excited about this planet they discovered a while back at first it's seemed like just another Barren exoplanet nothing really interesting but now new information from the James web Space Telescope shows that the planet is way more interesting than originally thought it's a super Earth that might

just be able to support [Music] life LHS 1140b is a super Earth because it's almost six times more massive than our planet with a bigger radius gravity would be a lot stronger than here on Earth and if life existed there it would be a lot stranger or weirder than anything we've ever seen when LHS 1140b was first found in 2017 astronomers thought it was like a mini Neptune with a thick atmosphere full of hydrogen and helium but this is where the big news comes in when the web telescope's powerful gaze was turned towards the exoplanet

to get a look at the planet's atmosphere as it passed in front of its star jwst is advanced instruments showed the planet's atmosphere of hydrogen and helium was actually not there at all almost like it had disappeared but what really happened is the James web Space Telescope instead found LHS 1140b has a nitrogen Rich atmosphere pretty much the same as our Earth's atmosphere if this planet does have the same atmosphere as Earth it could also have huge oceans of liquid water much bigger than on our planet and where there is liquid water and nitrogen there's

a really good chance to find some kind of life because LHS 1140b could be a rare superar with massive liquid water oceans partially covered in ice it makes it a number one Target in the search for alien life the only other planet known to have liquid water on its surface is Earth of course not everything on LHS 1140b would be the same as here on our planet that's because this this super Earth is tidily locked to its red dwarf star that means one side of the planet always faces its star the ice would melt on

this side of the planet while the rest of the planet would be covered in ice making LHS 1140b look like a big icy eyeball in space chances are high there could be some kind of Life floating around in the oceans of that temperate zone web is the most powerful telescope we've got in our Arsenal but it's really not the perfect telescope for looking at exoplanets and right now nothing has been proven yet because using the jwst isn't so easy thanks to where the telescope is in space it's only able to watch LHS 1140b move in

front of its star eight times a year at the same time the telescope is used by a lot of astronomers and the waiting list is probably from here to the Moon it could be several years before we can confirm this planet has liquid water or ice right now the same researchers that brought us this big news are hoping to get a few more hours of the web telescope's precious time to find out if water really does exist on this super Earth maybe in the near future we'll find out that this super Earth is not only

covered in water it could be a massive Ocean World filled with all kinds of bizarre alien life the possibility of there being life on another planet out there is really exciting stuff and it's not the only possible habitable exoplanet the web telescope found actually the jwst found a lot more mysterious otherworldly stuff than just one new super Earth it found a lot more in June 2024 some astronomers at the University of St Andrews found not only one potential super Earth but three of them orbiting a nearby orange dwarf star about 55 light years from us

only the third planet farthest away from the Star sits in the habitable zone but there's a little more excitement about this discovery because this orange dwarf star is a lot like our own solar type star it's a lot more stable and won't try to Nuke the planets that formed around it with deadly radiation we also know that a planet has to be a certain size and mass in order to hold life and these three super Earths have minimum masses ranging from 5 to 11 times that of our Earth anything over 15 times the mass of

our Earth starts to create tougher conditions for life right now all eyes are on the third planet in the habitable zone that orbits this orange dwarf star every 151 Earth days could there be life on this planet if the conditions are right it sure could be possible astronomers want to get a closer look using high contrast direct Imaging and high resolution spectroscopic Imaging the web telescope is capable of will anyone find life on these planets only time will tell one thing is certain finding some clues that may answer the human Race's long-standing question are we

alone is always an exciting [Music] thing we've been finding a ton of exoplanets out there some aren't really special but once in a while the web telescope does something really amazing and finds a mysterious new world and this time the telescope really showed off its incredible power astronomers from the max plank Institute for astronomy use the jwst to grab this direct image from showing the gas giant planet Epsilon IND daab the spot in the middle of the image is where the jwst coronagraph blocks off the light from the exoplanet's host star so that it's possible

to see the planets around the star the fact that we have a direct image of a planet that is 12 light years away from us is utterly amazing you probably thought since it's the coldest exoplanet found to date that it would be a freezing ice ball but it's nothing like Neptune's moon Triton which is a chili minus 391 de F it's actually much warmer at 35° f it's actually around 180° F warmer than Jupiter now here's why all that temperature stuff is important some gas planets can be thousands of degrees warmer but this gas Giant's

moderate temperature raises the possibility that clouds of gases like carbon dioxide methane and carbon monoxide could be present and anywhere you find these ingredients it's possible there could be life yes we may have found another planet that could host life and for our science fiction fans out there you probably know that Epsilon Indie has been the site of Star Trek episodes novels and the video game Halo everyone including astronomers thought there might be planets in this system and now it's really something to see actual planets being found but now for a moment imagine a world

where planets roam the Galaxy without a star to call home these aren't just ordinary planets they're eery star-like bodies that defy what we know about how planets form astronomers call them zombie planets and they're one of the most bizarre things ever found by the James webspace telescope this is where the line between planet and star starts to blur an astronomer named Ray gardana at John Hopkins University in Maryland and his colleagues found a rare family of six strange new worlds in the NGC 1333 star cluster that's 960 light years away the web telescope has taken

hundreds of breathtaking images of NGC 1333 the newly found worlds in this star cluster are being called Zombie planets because they formed like stars normally would a really surprising thing found was the smallest of these worlds maybe in the process of creating creting its own tiny solar system they're giant too like 5 to 10 times the size of Jupiter but because these objects formed like stars none of them orbits a star Rey and his team believe these zombie planets probably formed from the collapse of clouds of dust and gas basically the same way that stars

like our son are born so why didn't they turn into Stars the problem is these six strange Planet sized objects are big but they aren't massive enough to sustain the nuclear fusion of hydrogen could there be life on any of these zombie planets the probability is close to zero but the more we learn about the universe the more weird and unusual things we [Music] discover the James web Space Telescope has been working over time and it didn't just discover these dark zombie planets but it also found a strange zombie Galaxy and that ended up showing

us a big secret about our own Milky Way galaxy out there in the distant Universe the jwst spotted a Galaxy that stopped forming Stars around 20 million years ago it was thought to be a dead Galaxy but scientists were really surprised when they saw this galaxy come back to life when scientists look at distant galaxies through telescopes most of the time they see bursts of stars being born but when they first saw this galaxy they pronounced it dead because no new stars were seen forming because of the sheer amount of time that light took to

travel to the telescope astronomers were seeing the Galaxy as it was 650 million years after the big bang it's one of the earliest galaxies that we know of to form in our universe scientists were looking over data from this Galaxy and found signatures of Bright Young stars but they also found much older ones this means that after 100 million years of forming the Galaxy went quiet for 20 million years then it suddenly came back to life and started to churn out Stars again to see a galaxy die and then come back to life is a

very strange thing to [Music] discover so what's the big secret that was found about our own Galaxy it turns out that our own Milky Way is a zombie too that's right we live inside a galaxy-wide zombie the Milky Way has apparently been through a dead period once before since its formation a Japanese astronomer by the name of masafumi nuchi of tohoku University looked at the history of the Milky Way imagine our galaxy The Milky Way like a giant living thing that's had a very busy life according to masafumi nooi our galaxy has been around for

about 10 billion years and has gone through two big periods where it made new stars [Music] first a long time ago cold gas from space came into the Milky Way this gas helped create the first Stars after a while some of these Stars exploded in huge bursts called supernovas when these Stars exploded they spread out lots of new elements Like Oxygen and magnesium into the Galaxy this new material mixed with the gas and helped make more stars but then around 7 billion years ago something big happened shock w waves from other elements heated up the

gas in the Milky Way so much that it stopped coming into the Galaxy this caused a long break where no new stars were formed for about 2 billion years during this time some of the older stars exploded and their explosions added a lot of iron to the gas about 5 billion years ago the gas in the Galaxy cooled down again this cooling allowed the Milky Way to start making new Stars once more this second round of stars including our had more iron in them compared to the first generation so our galaxy has had a really

exciting history like it's had a few lives with breaks in between during which it made new stars and then started again with a new batch of [Music] stars our Milky Way galaxy has numerous compact systems that are centered around Stars similar to our sun however planets orbiting closely to these stars are usually too hot and and therefore unsuitable for supporting life but when it comes to colder fainter Stars the habitable zone around such stars is much closer this is glea 667 a triple star system located in the constellation of Scorpius just about 23 light years

from Earth it contains the first known example of a system where a low mass star has multiple potentially habitable rocky planets orbiting within its goldilock Zone similarly to Alpha centor this system has three stars GJ 667a is a k-type main sequence star and the largest one in the system this orange red dwarf has a mass of 73% a radius of 76% and a visual Luminosity only about 12% that of the Sun at an average distance of 12.5 Au is its companion GJ 667b it's also a k type orange red dwarf about 69% the mass of

the Sun and it radiates just about 5% of our star's visual luminosity and just like with Alpha centor the most interesting is the third star glea 667c is an mtype Red Dwarf with a mass and radius only a third of the sun it's also incredibly faint and a comparatively cold star with a surface temperature of 3775 kelv yet despite its small size GJ 667c has a surprisingly Rich planetary system system initially scientists thought there were only three exoplanets orbiting glea 667c but after revisiting existing data and making additional observations they discovered there may actually be

six planets in the planetary system with three or even four of them being potentially habitable super Earths so what exactly is a super Earth the term is used to describe a planet that's larger than Earth but not quite as large as the gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn these planets can be made up of rock or a mixture of rock and ice and they may have atmospheres that could support different life forms the closest planet to the star glea 667 CB is a scorching hot world at 200° cus being the most massive one in the

system about 5.5 times that of Earth this exoplanet probably has a very thick atmosphere and orbits its host star in just 7 Days the three potentially habitable planets in the glea 667 system are all located further away from their hostar and they all have masses between 1 and five times that of Earth making them great candidates for habitability glea 667cc the next closest planet orbits in the inner edge of the Stars habitable zone it has a mass about 3.8 and a radius 1.8 times that of earth and its year lasts just 28 Earth days with

the Earth similarity index of 0.85 it's known as the Holy Grail of extra solar planets because of the low energy output the habitable zone around the Red Dwarf GJ 667c is located very near to the star ranging from 0.11 Au to 0.23 Au and is entirely contained within the orbit of mercury to compare Earth is located at about 1 AU from the Sun our planet would be an ice world if it orbited star C at that distance GJ 667cc orbits its parent star eight times closer at approximately 0.12 Au revolving around the Red Dwarf every

28 days because of such proximity the exoplanet is likely to be tily locked to the star with eternal day on one side and Eternal Night on the other drastic temperature differences between the two sides probably have a major impact on the global climate on the exoplanet glea 667 CC gets about 10% less light than Earth does from the Sun but since most of the light it receives is infrared the planet gets about the same amount of energy as our planet does from the sun which would help retain water on its surface and result in a

similar climate to Earth because scientists don't know for sure if the planet has an atmosphere and how thick it could be it's impossible to predict the exact surface temperature on glea 667cc if the planet does have an earthlike atmosphere it would transfer heat and equalize temperatures across the entire planet with a pleasant 30° C on the night side living on such a planet would be a much different experience GJ 667cc receives a faint reddish light from its star the other two stars glea 667 A and B are located at a distance of about 230 Au

much further than the distance between Pluto and the Sun and outside the planetary system however the two other Suns would still be seen as a pair of bright stars visible in daytime and at night they would shine as bright as the full moon and our sun would appear as a distant star unfortunately the nearby Red Dwarf is known to emit flares or intense bursts of radiation and energetic particles up to a thousand times stronger than the flares on our sun this could be problematic for any potential life on the surface of glea 667 CC as

the planet is located close to its flaring host star and the strong magnetism of the Red Dwarf may cause star spots that can reduce the energy output of the Star by up to 40% for months which combined with the lack of ultraviolet light emissions would be another issue for the formation of Life as We Know It living on glea 667cc would be nothing like what we used to also because of how massive it is the higher mass of the exoplanet means different gravitational acceleration on it its surface this world is Rocky and so the gravitational

acceleration would be up to 60% higher than what we experience on earth a person weighing 75 Kg on Earth would weigh as much as 120 Kg on glea 667cc in addition a planet with higher Mass can hold a more massive atmosphere leading to higher atmospheric pressure at the planet's surface in case it has an atmosphere similar to Earth the atmospheric pressure would only be a few times higher but if the exoplanet has a venus-like atmosphere the pressure could be several hundred times greater equivalent to the water pressure several kilometers deep in Earth's oceans despite its

location in a habitable zone glea 667cc may not have the same conditions as Earth life forms on glea 667cc may have to adapt to fluctuating and low light the potentially High atmospheric pressure and frequent flares but this doesn't mean life cannot form on such a world we've already seen examples of remarkable life adaptability on Earth the two other potentially habitable planets are almost identical glea 667 C and glea 667 CF are both located farther out from their planet star meaning they receive less energy this could make them too cold to support Life as we know

it but unlike with GJ 667cc having a thick atmosphere would be beneficial for potential life on these planets that it would trap heat and maintain favorable temperature conditions spotting three such worlds in the habitable zone of the same planetary system is extremely rare but four is almost Unthinkable according to one study five planets in the glea 667c system are estimated to receive solar radiation ranging from 20 to 200% of the current exposure of Earth to the sun which makes them all candidates for potential Hab habitability but there are other factors in play scientists have determined

that for a planet with a mass equal to Earth the habitable zone around GLA 667c has two boundaries the inner boundary lies between 0.095 and 0.126 astronomical units from the Star while the outer boundary lies between 0.241 and 0.251 Au any Planet orbiting Within These distances from Star C may be able to sustain life as it would have the right conditions for liquid water to exist on its surface if a planet is too close to its star the heat will cause water to turn into vapor and Escape making the planet uninhabitable this happens because water

vapor is a greenhouse gas which can trap heat and cause temperatures to rise to intolerable levels only the planets at the inner edge of the habitable zone with a larger Mass are more resistant to the moist greenhouse effect on the other hand if a planet is too far away from its star like the outermost glea 667 g it risks being covered in ice while gases like CO2 can warm the planet and prevent this too much CO2 can actually cool the planet down by reflecting light away so there's a limit to how much CO2 can help

warm a planet in 2013 astronomers made an announcement that glea 667c has a minimum of six planets and there's a possibility of a seventh planet designated as GJ 667 CH although highly controversial the exoplanet could be the smallest one found so far around star sea with a mass of at least 1.1 times that of Earth located Just Between the planets C and B Because of its mass and proximity to the parent star the planet H would be too hot for any life to form the planets F and E are confirmed to orbit in the habitable

zone and although the estimated location of the planet D is outside the outer edge of the habitable zone its orbit is still uncertain this means glea 667 CC CF C and possibly even CD are all potential habitable Worlds the discovery of densely packed planetary systems around M dwarf stars such as glea 667c points to the existence of numerous populations of planetary systems out there each with several potentially habitable planets and since M dwarfs account for More than 70% of all stars in our Cosmic neighborhood the number of such promis ing planetary systems in our galaxy

is likely to be much greater than ever thought instead of searching for a single potential habitable planet among 10 Stars scientists can now focus on one star to find multiple Earth 2.0 candidates as new and advanced telescopes are being developed our ability to uncover the mysteries of the universe is growing at an exponential rate [Music] the James web Space Telescope was built to study the early Universe back when the first galaxies and stars were forming but what makes it really special is its ability to analyze atmospheres around distant exoplanets the telescopes near infrared spectrograph and

the mid infrared instrument are able to measure a different spectrum of light emitted by farway celestial bodies this helped scientists identify the composition and temperatures of planets and their atmospheres and on top of that jwst has a powerful infrared camera that can see through an exoplanet's thick cloud cover and help us study its geology the problem is Trappist one is an mtype Red Dwarf which are the most prevalent in our galaxy and the most active Stars we know of emitting powerful flares several times a day and since studying an exoplanet's atmosphere takes observing light as

it passes through it it's difficult for scientists to distinguish ordinary light from the Stellar radiation caused by the flares but the James web Space Telescope is much more powerful than any other telescope known to science its Precision in detecting brightness fluctuations is comparable to looking at 10,000 light bulbs and seeing four of them being turned off so what has the telescope discovered about the trapist one system so far recent observations showed that the closest planet to the star in the Trappist one system either has a very thin atmosphere or none at all and is most

likely a bare rock this innermost planet called trapist 1B is a scorching hot Rocky world with a blistering surface temperature of 450° f the planet is too close to its parent star much like Mercury in our solar system which places it outside of the habitable zone slightly farther out another planet rotates around the red dwarf trapist 1 C in the past it was believed that the second planet in the trapist 1 system was similar to Venus but the data from James web telescope proved scientists wrong the planet doesn't have a venus-like thick atmosphere and while

the temperatures on the day side of this world are still extremely hot about 225° fah it is now considered the coldest rocky planet ever studied using this new method in such harsh conditions water would have evaporated long ago even if it was initially present on these worlds but according to a new study the rest of the planetary system might have stayed cold enough for water to remain there either in liquid or frozen [Music] form the lightest of the planets in this system trapist 1D has around 30% the mass of the Earth and a radius of

Approximately 80% % of our planet because of such small Mass the planet probably doesn't have a dense atmosphere or an abundance of heavy elements but it still Bears similarities with Earth such as the amount of solar radiation it gets from its Star located just on the inner edge of the habitable zone the planet's temperature without an atmosphere would be about 48° F to compare if there were no greenhouse effect on Earth the surface temperature would be freezing about 0° f but what's exciting about this world is that it could Harbor a staggering 250 times more

water than our own Planet although the planet's potential habitability remains uncertain but there's one factor that might change this it's known as albo which is a measure of the reflectivity of a surface typically expressed as a percentage it quantifies how much incoming solar radiation is reflected back into space by a surface rather than being absorbed in other words it describes the ability of an object or Surface to reflect sunlight albo values range from 0 to 1 with 0 indicating that all incoming radiation is absorbed by a perfectly black surface and one indicating that all incoming

radiation is reflected by a perfectly White surface the Earth's average albo is 0.3 and so if trapist 1D has the same or similar value it could provide an environment suitable for some some forms of life this is because water vapor acts as a greenhouse gas but with earthlike albo the planet would escape the runaway greenhouse State scientists think trapist 1D is covered by a global ocean but for life to thrive there it needs a tidal heat flux 20 times stronger than what Earth has tidal heat flux is like a special kind of energy generated by

the gravitational interactions with nearby celestial objects on trapist one D this energy would act like geothermal heat that could sustain chemical reactions in its gigantic ocean some forms of life Drive energy from chemosynthesis rather than photosynthesis even here on Earth so there's a possibility that trapist 1D could be a unique home for life that doesn't rely on sunlight and if the planet has a thin atmosphere its Twilight Zone or the border between the night and day sides could be habitable as well among the planets in the the Trappist one system the fourth one Trappist 1e

is the most promising it's both dense and possibly quite Rocky sharing similarities with our home planet even in composition located in the habitable zone of its parent star trapist 1e could hold a thick oxygen-rich atmosphere and all the hydrogen could have escaped its atmosphere because of how light it is which is good news since it's a greenhouse gas if trapist 1e began with more water than Earth and Mars and retained it on the surface over time its climate could be strikingly similar to what we enjoy on our own planet that being said trapist 1e is

considered one of the most earthlike planets ever discovered imagine living in a world where a year lasts about seven Earth days and the concept of day and night is something completely different from what we used to because of the close proximity to their star all the seven planets in the system are tidily locked with one side always facing their parent star during a NeverEnding sunset or Sunrise the sky would be a reddish Hue and you'd be able to see the six planets in the sky as if they were moons with some appearing larger than the

Earth's moon in the sky on its day side the planet might even have lands where humans could Thrive the climate would be much different thick storm clouds covering large areas massive dust storms Distributing heat across the planet it and maintaining a temperature balance necessary for complex ecosystems to flourish while also generating powerful winds tornadoes and hurricanes the night side would be a harsh place even for expeditions this is the realm of Arctic cold and towering glaciers that dominate the landscape although a constant Twilight might get a bit tiresome it offers a crucial Advantage especially for

the first settlers in the distant past our ancestors use the ever shifting constellations as Direction guides but on trapist 1e the nearby star is always at a fixed position in the sky so it would be like having a permanent North Star to show you the way through the Uncharted territories of this alien terrain although it would appear several times larger than the sun in our galaxy there are 10 times more of these mtype red dwarf stars than stars like our sun these little red Dwarfs hold promise as potential cradles for life with trillions of years

for life to evolve and flourish in their Cosmic neighborhoods however as we've mentioned earlier even though they're normally dim many red dwarfs can suddenly and dramatically increase their brightness this supercharged mode is like a star shooting out solar flares on steroids [Music] some scientists think that the flares from the Trappist one star might actually be helpful for life on the nearby planets these flares give off a lot of energy and that energy could have kickstarted the creation of important molecules like amino acids which are building blocks for life so while the high energy radiation from

flares could be harmful and may even sterilize a planet's surface or strip away its atmosphere it could also provide the extra energy needed for early forms of life to develop although data shows Trappist one is a much safer host star its flares are about 30 times milder than those seen in other red dwarfs but since the seven planets in the Trappist one system are tightly packed the effects would be noticeable and this means that auroras on trapist 1e would be nothing like the ones we know human bodies are fragile so even weaker but frequent solar

flares from the Star pose a constant danger here auroras act as natural alarms signaling the incoming flare to survive inhabitants would rely on an exponentially thicker ozone layer and a strong magnetosphere along with advanced technology to track and respond to these volatile solar events for safety colonizers of the planet could construct specialized shelters resembling bunkers these shelters would be equipped with shielding materials and advanced life support system systems serving as a refuge during periods of intense space radiation and they'd be built into every habitat moving wouldn't be much different as the planet has gravity about

93% that of Earth but if you don't find a safe place to hide once solar flares strike the planet your arteries might contract which can impair blood flow leading to critical health problems exposure to this extreme Stellar radiation can also damage the DNA within your cells disrupting the normal cell production rate causing mutations or a growth of abnormal cells in this world of constant Twilight growing plants becomes a puzzle The Starlight reaches the planet's surface at a low angle which can cast shadows and limit plant growth to overcome this humans might consider a concept like

the Hanging Gardens of Babylon letting vegetation drape from multi-level platforms to catch sunlight from different directions imagine a series of tiered planter boxes each placed on top of the one below plants are spaced and designed to allow sunlight to filter down through the tears so even if a plant on a lower level is partially shaded by the plants above it it still gets some sunlight from the sides or through small gaps in between vegetation making the most of the available sunlight the idea is similar to the vertical Gardens created by Nature where every inch of

space is optimized for plants growth if there's native Flora on the planet it might not need a human hand to thrive since it is probably evolved to be completely black to absorb more of the sunlight another idea is some vegetation might also evolve into bioluminescent organisms emitting their own soft glow to compensate for the lack of natural light this adaptation would extend their growing hours and enhance their chances of survival in the persistent Twilight located a bit farther from its parent star trapist 1 F only receives about a third of the Starlight compared to what

Earth gets from the Sun this makes this world much cooler if there's no atmosphere around trapist 1f its surface temperature would be approximately - 74° F turning any potentially existing water there into ice the same would happen on the two outermost planets trapist 1 G and H although the data shows they are rich in water their surface would be covered in ice however since trapist 1G is about 30% more massive than Earth it could potentially hold on to its atmosphere if the planet managed to preserve this heat Distributing layer and has active volcanism to fulfill

greenhouse gases needed to sustain that atmosphere the planet might still be a water world or maybe there's a subsurface liquid water ocean on this planet that hides exotic forms of life if it exists scientists speculate that the ocean could be 4155 M deep to put this into perspective the average depth of the Earth's Global ocean is around 2.3 Mi the corner of the trapist 1 System where the seventh planet orbits doesn't get bathed in much Stellar radiation if the planet was orbiting inside our solar system it would be somewhere between Mars and Jupiter according to

estimations the surface of the trapist 1H is a chilling minus 148° f night trapist 1 is an aging star that's been cooling for 7.6 billion years since its birth the nearby planets were once exposed to extreme conditions due to the intense heat in theory this heat should have caused any water present on these celestial bodies to turn into vapor and concentrate in their atmospheres later as extreme Stellar winds hit the planets this water would Escape into space however astronomers have been working on more accurate modelss of planetary atmospheres based on real data in the past

it was believed that heat escaped from a planet surface through convection a process similar to hot air rising and cold air falling but celestial objects are more complex than that and the gases in their atmospheres act differently at different altitudes Recent research suggests that the Trappist one planets might not have heated up enough to turn their crust and mantle into molten rock this means that a significant amount of of water might have remained trapped within the Rocks even after the star cooled down currently the conditions on these planets might be extreme although red dwarfs are

known for their remarkable longevity and so the seven Trappist worlds have billions and trillions of years to go through countless stages of evolution until one day what is currently scorching or freezing turns into a more hospitable environment teeming with life as we understand it many Studies have been done and concluded that life has more chances to emerge around red dwarfs than stars like our sun and there are more red dwarfs than any other type of star in the universe red dwarfs are also the smallest type of hydrogen burning star in 2023 astronomers stumbled across an

intriguing exoplanet around the red dwarf star toi 715 located in the constellation of volins 136 light years away from us astronomically speaking this is our Celestial neighborhood like a house just down the block from where we live the red dwarf star toi 715 is orbited by the super Earth planet toi 715b what defines an exoplanet as a super Earth is its mass which has to surpass that of Earth toi 715b is three times as massive as our planet and it's about 1.5 times the earth radius to even consider a space object habitable among all other

things it has to be either a water world or a rocky planet by analyzing the exoplanet's parameters scientists can make predictions about its composition determining whether it falls into the category of a gaseous Rocky or watery World usually planets that are between 2 and 10 Earth masses and a diameter between that of our planet and Neptune turn out to be Rocky but it's not only the exoplanet's mass and size that makes it special located at just the right distance from its star toi 715b receives enough heat to possibly have liquid water on its surface and

where there's water there could be life red dwarfs like toi 715 often have several worlds tightly packed within their habitable zone astronomers theorize that there could be one more planet in the system just about 7% larger than Earth if the theory holds true it will be the smallest exoplanet ever discovered in the habitable zone by Nas's transiting exoplanet survey satellite in our Cosmic quest to find habitable worlds planets like toi 715b seem to be our best contenders despite our limited knowledge about this newfound exoplanet and its potential neighbors imagine the excitement if future observations uncover

an atmosphere and even bodies of of liquid on its surface like those we've once spotted on Saturn's largest moon Titan the possibilities are thrilling perhaps one day our descendants will be navigating vast Uncharted Landscapes seeing the unknown creatures roaming around this alien terrain but let's move on to other recently discovered exoplanets unfortunately not many exoplanets we find are habitable even in theory some have conditions so terrifying we wonder how they came to exist on average chances of finding an inhospitable exoplanet are much higher and these planets raise a lot of questions within the scientific Community

one of such Celestial Marvels sits at a distance of around 264 light years from Earth so what's so special about it what you see here is one of the planets called Ultra hot Neptunes but LTT 9779 B isn't just that it's the most reflective exoplanet we've ever detected the blazing hot world is roughly five times wider than Earth and it reflects about 80% of the light coming from its star to compare Earth only reflects about 30% of sunlight what makes it a gigantic Cosmic mirror is an abundance of reflective clouds of metal with titanium droplets

raining down on its surface the problem is as scientists say it's a planet that shouldn't exist the side of the exoplanet that faces its host star is a extremely hot so hot that neither clouds of water nor even clouds of glass or metal should form in its atmosphere according to our current understanding a Star located this close to an exoplanet should strip away its atmosphere completely so what happened there researchers compared the phenomenon to condensation in a steamy bathroom if you let the cool air in water vapor will condense and if you let the hot

water run eventually the air will be so full of paper it wouldn't be able to hold anymore something similar could have happened on this Ultra hot Neptune when the planet's atmosphere was filled with silicate and metal Vapor because of the scorching temperatures on its day side but the exoplanet's uniqueness doesn't end here throughout Decades of observations we've detected a multitude of Worlds orbiting their host stars in under one Earth day at a very close proximity but all of them were either hot Jupiters 10 times wider than Earth or rocky planets over two times smaller in

size than Earth there was a population of missing planets the sizes of which would fit between these categories scientists call this Gap the neptunian desert until finally we've stumbled across LTT 9779 B which by its parameters fits right in the middle in a way the exoplanet's reflectivity is its survival mechanism if it absorbed much more heat from its star over time the planet would slowly evaporate LT 9779 B is a perfect Target for follow-up observations by the Hubble and the James web space telescopes perhaps our technologies will reveal even more Mysteries behind this already enigmatic

celestial object in years to come the planet we're about to discuss was discovered over a decade ago but scientists have recently learned something about it that deserves the spot on our list wasp 76b is nearly half as hot as our sun almost twice as wide as Jupiter but just about 90% its mass the scorching temperatures are explained by the planet's close orbit around its star just about 3% the Earth Sun distance even the closest planet to the Sun Mercury is located 10 times further away the place would be a perfect crematorium since human bones which

primarily consist of calcium vaporize at approximately 1500° C on top of that one of the planet's sides is tidily locked to the yellow white wasp 76 star which results in different temperatures across the exoplanet and brings about a weird phenomenon throughout the years since the planet's Discovery researchers have studied the composition of the exoplanet discovering 11 chemical elements in its atmosphere some of which turned out to be rock forming or at least that's what happens to the Mont terrestrial worlds like Earth but because of the blisteringly hot temperatures on wasp 76b elements like magnesium and

ion turn into gases that reside in the planet's upper atmosphere and once strong winds carry these iron and magnesium Vapors to the night side of the planet they cool and rain down as molten droplets of metal it would have been a fascinating view to observe which would probably look something like this Astron have also detected a surprisingly higher amount of nickel in the planet's atmosphere which could mean that in the past wasp 76b swallowed a tiny Rocky world like Mercury that contained an abundance of this element some planets out there in the universe are extremely

different from what we have in the solar system and wasp 76b isn't even the most drastic example recently astronomers uncovered an extraordinary star system just 100 light years away dubbed hd11 0067 it contains six sub Neptunes planets 2 to three times the Earth's size all of the exoplanets in the system are unusually close to their host star and with orbits that would fit in between Mercury and the sun unlike our solar system that's been continuously changing hd11 00067 appears to have maintained its structure for over a billion years the six planets are synchronized in one

perect perfect Celestial dance that scientists call resonance the way these sub Neptunes orbit resembles fractions in a mathematical equation by the time the first planet completes three orbits the second world revolves around its star twice each subsequent planet follows the Rhythm with the fourth sub Neptune for example orbiting the star four times for every three orbits of the fifth planet and so on this discovery is exceptionally rare usually Young planets maintain these rhythms for a brief period until something goes wrong like a passing star or more massive planets in the same system disrupting the balance

due to their strong gravitational influence over a thousand light years away in the constellation pictor sits a binary star system bbop 1 that's where scientists have recently identified a new member the exoplanet Bop 1C and it's not a typical Planet As We Know know them it belongs to the category called circumbinary planets or such that orbit two stars instead of one they're quite scarce in our Cosmic catalog with only about 15 known so far but there's more it's the second circumbinary system that hosts more than one planet we've ever been able to detect interestingly about

85% of stars in the universe aren't like the sun they usually have one or more Stellar companions in the Milky Way alone there are systems with clusters of Seven Stars based on our current understanding single Stars only make up about 15% of all stars in the cosmos the newly discovered world is approximately 65 times more massive than Earth which makes it a gas giant like Jupiter or Saturn just imagine how breathtaking it would be to stand on its surface surrounded by a double Sunrise unlike ordinary discs of matter surrounding a single star in circumin systems

the planet forming discs rotate around both Stars creating disturbances that make it challenging for planets to form as a result it's only in the calm Corners away from the Stellar chaos the planets have a chance to be born discoveries like this remind us of the Endless Celestial gems we're still about to uncover even those that were once purely science fiction GJ 9827 D is the planet known since 201 17 but just recently the Hubble Space Telescope has made an astonishing discovery about this world the exoplanet is twice the size of Earth and about as hot

as Venus what you would never expect to find there is water the key ingredient for Life as we know it but Fingerprints of water molecules is exactly what the Hubble telescope revealed over 3 years of observations as the planet completed 11 transits 11 times when it crossed in front of its host star the atmosphere of of GJ 9827 B appears rich in water and if the measurements are correct this will be the first time scientists directly prove the existence of Worlds with watery atmospheres around Stars unlike ours the planet may have initially formed in a

frigid region farther from its star where low temperatures kept its water in the form of ice later it migrated closer slowly losing hydrogen due to its intense radiation or it might have originated close to the hot star in the first place with traces of water already present in its atmosphere although even if that were true this would still be a steamy hot world where life forms we're familiar with wouldn't be able to survive the next step for scientists is to examine data gathered by the James webspace telescope which will hopefully provide more clarity about the

nature of water-rich Worlds beyond our solar system as for the search for half itable worlds a recent study suggests a new method to detect such planets based on the role of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere of exoplanets when the production of carbon monoxide outruns its removal something known as Co runaway it can have an effect on the emergence of life on earth like worlds orbiting sunlike stars in our Milky Way galaxy there are potentially 40 billion such planets by observing atmospheric dynamics of Distant Worlds astronomers can focus on best candidates for habitable and even potentially

inhabited [Music] exoplanets in the Quest for potentially habitable planets scientists seek out twin Earths planets that closely resemble our own a twin earth is characterized by a size similar to that of Earth which increases the probability of having a rocky surface additionally it's essential for the planet to orbit a star Akin in size and radiation output to our sun while maintaining an optimal distance within the habitable or goldilock Zone Kepler 452b was the first earthlike planet found orbiting around a star like the sun and it might just be a perfect candidate as a habitable world

back in 2015 scientists considered it the most earthlike planet ever discovered and there's a reason for that like the sun Kepler 452 is also a gtype star of about the same temperature but 1.5 billion years older even though the star is brighter and slightly larger in diameter than the sun solar energy that reaches the exoplanet is just about 10% more than what Earth receives at 1.6 times our planet size there's more than a 50% chance this super Earth is a rocky world even the orbits of the two planets are similar Kepler 452b is located in

the habitable zone of its star about 5% farther compared to Earth and the Sun distance scientists believe that the planet had a valuable Head Start in the development of Life compared to Earth as it spent 6 billion years in the Stars habitable zone of course this is only if Kepler 452b had all the right conditions for life to emerge on its surface in the first place however we've recently discovered that Kepler meets some of those conditions one study shows that if the exoplanet CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere is similar to the atmospheric amounts of gas

observed on Earth the exoplanet is habitable so what would it be like to live in this alien world because the planet is more massive than Earth it would also likely have a stronger surface gravity in the new environment people would need to acclimate to their altered weight experiencing a sensation of being approximately twice as heavy as they are on our planet initially humans would encounter Mobility challenges but over time we would undergo adaptation Paving the way for the natural course of evolution to unfold former NASA astronaut believes that just like firefighters carrying heavy loads our

bodies would adapt to the new environment gradually growing stronger through heightened physical activity our bones would develop resilience countering a potent gravitational force pulling us towards the ground over Generations kids would be born with inherently robust physiques surpassing the physical resilience of earthborn infants not everything however would be different thanks to its current proximity to the star Kepler 452b would feel much like home when it comes to Sunshine and surface temperature planets would still rely on photosynthesis as their primary source of energy maintaining a growth pace and intensity akin to that observed on earth scientists

also speculate the exoplanet might have a thick atmosphere water on its surface and active volcanoes if most predictions are correct Kepler 452b is a very promising candidate for Earth 2.0 but it might not stay like that for long researchers think the planet might experience a runaway greenhouse effect in about 500 million years the same phenomenon that made Venus a scorching World by trapping high amounts of carbon dioxide in the planet's atmosphere making it 90 times as thick as Earth's still that's 500 million years plenty enough time for the human race to colonize it and call

it a home World Kepler 452b seems exciting but it's not the only Kepler world that shows promise and it's a really distant one at that even light would take 1,800 years to reach this exoplanet but what if we take the fastest man-made object ever created breaking its own speed records as it it approaches our sun the Parker solar probe is soaring at a speed of 120 m/ second this is a striking achievement and yet it's still only 0.063% of the speed of light if we imagine a direct Journey from Earth to the exoplanet Kepler 452b

the probe would still require an astonishing 2.8 million years to Traverse the vast expanse of 1,800 light years 500 light years away from Earth within the constellation signis lies Kepler 186 a red dwarf star it is this Celestial location where scientists discovered the first earth-sized exoplanet orbiting a distant star in the habitable zone since then astronomers are confident there are multiple worlds in the universe similar to Earth in diameter and could have conditions that would allow for the existence of liquid water on their surface Kepler 186f only exceeds the size of our planet by less

than 10% with an orbital period of 130 days this alien world resides towards the outer boundaries of the habitable zone because of this Kepler 186f receives approximately 1/3 of the heat energy the Earth receives from the Sun rendering its conditions more akin to those on Mars however rather than being a misfortune this disparity offers a unique Advantage red dwarfs are known to have powerful solar flares increasing their brightness twice within minutes but Kepler 186 star is smaller less massive cooler and nowhere near as bright as the Sun so even if the mtype star experiences frequent

outbursts of radiation the exoplanet might be far enough to avoid the deadly consequences the potential for liquid water and the existence of Life on Kepler 186f are not solely determined by the planet's distance from its star but also by its atmospheric conditions the exoplanet's current position could indicate frozen water on the surface however its large size allows for a denser atmosphere compared to the earth that can retain and distribute heat potentially warming the water the four other planets within the system are only about half the size of our planet and all of them have short

orbital periods which makes the inner star companions extremely hot worlds unsuitable for Life as we currently understand it today it would take a 780,000 year journey to reach Kepler 186f but imagine that sometime in the distant future we invent a spacecraft with a speed limit of 90% the speed of light in about 550 years our descendants would step foot on Kepler 186f what would their experience be like the red dwarf star Kepler 186 is smaller and about 25 times fainter than our sun if you were standing on the exoplanet surface at midday the Stars brightness

would be similar to our Suns about an hour before Sunset scientists say the planet maintains a stable axial tilt enabling it to have regular seasons and a consistent climate just like here on Earth based on calculations scientists have determined that the axial tilt of Kepler 186f has remained stable for an extensive period of 10 of millions of years such stability is crucial as an erratic tilt can have catastrophic consequences transforming a potentially habitable planet into a Barren and inhospitable World think of Mars where an unstable tilt might have played a key role in shaping its

current unfavorable conditions the search for the perfect goldilock Planet continues and some of the best candidates are often found by chance [Music] in 2020 Kepler 1649c was accidentally discovered during a review of past observations after initially being misclassified as a false positive exoplanet scientists still don't know much about this world including what its atmosphere could be but since Kepler 1649c receives 75% of Starlite compared to Earth and because of its much shorter orbital period of just 19.5 days it might have temperatures similar to those we experience here on our planet if Kepler 186f lacked a

heat trapping atmosphere its surface temperatures would be around - 38° F although this may not seem favorable Earth's temperatures without greenhouse gases would also be lower around 0° F even if the atmospheres of the two planets were similar Kepler 186f would still require more greenhouse gas es to compensate for this difference many other worlds in the cosmos bear resemblance to Earth in terms of temperature or size like trapist 1f trapist 1D tgard C and toi700d and these exoplanets are located much closer to us so far Kepler 1649c seems unattainable the vast expanse of 470,000 years

of travel time lies between us but when time comes it would be a worthwhile Journey as none of these nearby planets can match the unique combination found in Kepler 1649c this extraordinary exoplanet not only potentially shares our planet's temperature and size characteristics but also resides comfortably within the habitable zone of its star making it a truly exceptional Discovery the star system has a second planet called Kepler 1649b that's roughly 8% larger than Earth but located much closer to the Red Dwarf because of the quite unusual 4 to9 orbit period ratio between the two worlds there's

potentially a third planet hiding in the system soon enough Next Generation observatories will give us more clues on the habitability of these worlds meanwhile we'll explore yet another impressive Celestial body lurking 1,100 light years away in the constellation of Lyra every 112 days kep 442b orbits a kype star at about half the Earth's sun distance such a close proximity might lead to multiple issues for the well-being of any potential life forms present on the exoplanet typically planets that orbit close to their host stars become tidily locked resulting in a potentially harsh environment on their surfaces

however Kepler 442b is situated just outside the range where the star's gravitational forces could cause tidal locking k type stars are generally dimmer compared to the Sun additionally Kepler 442 itself is a smaller and cooler Star so the exoplanet around it finds itself in an optimal position approximately 0.4 astronomical units away from its relatively tranquil host star scientists consider k type stars as a sweet spot in the search for habitable worlds although they aren't as bright as gtype stars and not as long living as M type type red dwarfs they offer a favorable combination of

properties only within 100 light years of our sun lie at least 1,000 K Stars these orange dwarfs can exist between 15 to 45 billion years and throughout the entire lifespan of our sun which is about 10 billion years orange dwarfs only gain approximately 10 to 15% in their brightness all the while our sun can make the Earth uninhabitable in a mere 1 to 2 billion years so how promising is Kepler [Music] 442b astronomers like to categorize planets based on their potential habitability the updated scale called the comparative habitability index improves upon previous methods by considering

multiple factors it takes into account the planet's composition favoring rocky planets as well as the exent electricity of its orbit which affects the stability of light and heat received from the Star Additionally the scale considers the albo which measures the amount of solar energy reflected by the planet's atmosphere these combined factors play a crucial role in determining the habitability even in cases where the orbit is irregular just like the Earth similarity index the comparative habitability index ranges from 0 to 1 with a higher value indicating a higher potential for habitability on both scales Kepler 442b

has been assigned a value of approximately 0.84 unfortunately the exoplanet is too dim and small to be directly imaged with our current telescopes let alone travel to Kepler 442b which would take 1,700,000 years on the fastest space probe ever created what we can do however is look at its biosphere in one study dedicated to examining radiation levels received by potentially habitable exoplanets Kepler 442b stood out as particularly interesting it receives nearly sufficient sunshine to support a significant biosphere that could be detectable by the James web Space Telescope as the jwst studies this world we might

also want it to extend its observation to two other intriguing exoplanets within the same constellation in the Kepler 62 star system two planets reside comfortably in the habitable zone the remaining Trio of planets in the system orbit too closely to the kype star causing them to be excessively hot and unsuitable for sustaining life scientists find Kepler 62e and Kepler 62f particularly intriguing as they are potentially water Rich worlds these exoplanets have Earth similarity index rankings of 0.83 and 0.69 respectively Kepler 62e completes an orbit around its star are every 122 days while Kepler 62f has

a longer orbital period of 267 days the atmosphere of Kepler 62e is believed to be densely clouded and the planet is thought to have a consistently warm and humid climate extending even to its polar regions these conditions make it an exceptionally favorable environment for supporting life a study from 2014 suggested a possibility of a large moon in orbit of Kepler 62e if that's the case the odds of the exoplanet being a habitable world would increase even more this is because large moons are necessary for the evolution of complex life through tidal forces they help regulate

the planet's rotation and axial tilt which has a direct impact on its climate patterns moons also provide a protective shield deflecting or absorbing potential impacts from asteroids or comets thereby safeguarding the planet and its inhabitants although a further located Kepler 62f would mean cooler temperatures on its surface it still holds potential to be life-friendly but even if this hypothesis holds true envisioning a technologically advanced civilization seems challenging given the absence of land metals and the fundamental element of fire processes like metalogy vital for technological progress would seemingly be unattainable nevertheless Nature's complexity opens a possibility

of creatures far more inventive than ourselves capable of finding alternative ways to surpass our current technological achievements perhaps even if they live underwater if Humanity decided to send a message on board Parker solar probe to any intelligent extraterrestrial life possibly inhabiting these strange worlds they would receive it no sooner than 1,850,000 years from now but if we sent a radio signal today it would reach the two exoplanets in a mere 1,000 200 years blink of an eye on a grand Cosmic scale while Kepler 62e and Kepler 62f are no ideal twin Earths today the everchanging

nature of planetary systems holds the promise that these worlds can undergo transformative changes our own planet was once entirely submerged in oceans and yet over time it transformed into a diverse world of both land and water researchers contemplate the future development of these exoplanets speculating that they too may eventually evolve into environments reminiscent of Earth with a harmonious interplay between expansive lands and surrounding oceans meanwhile even here on Earth we have something as weird as flying fish so it's not unreasonable to assume that were living organisms to exist on these two exoplanets they could be

quite sophisticated one of the biggest challenges in studying distant world has been the vast distances involved however we may not have to wait for super Advanced telescopes to address this challenge data from Kepler and the European Space Agency shows that among all sunlike stars in the universe half could host potentially habitable Rocky worlds and some of these Stars could be lurking in our Cosmic neighborhood this means there's a 95% chance of at least one twin earth hiding somewhere within 20 light years from us how long do you think till we verify a completely habitable World

in a close vicinity of our solar system and how will this discovery Chang the course of human history let us know what you think in the comments make sure to stay tuned here to learn more about our planet and the cosmos thanks for watching [Music]