Get ready to become a bit more familiar with our favourite new planet, the catchily named Gliese 832c.
Scientists in New South Wales have discovered a new Earth-like planet that is located a mere 16-light-years away from our own home planet. It's known as Gliese 832c, and it's causing plenty of excitement in the astronomical community because of the fact that it's the closest one they've discovered yet, and is within the habitable zone of a Red Dwarf star.
Gliese 832c has a mass about five times the size of that of Earth and has an orbit of about 35 days (and we thought Ireland got a short summer), but it receives a similar amount of stellar energy as the Earth does from our Sun.
Pic via The Verge & PHL / UPR Arecibo.
The Red Dwarf it's orbiting is smaller than our own Sun (half the mass and radius) but the atmosphere and temperatures could prove to be conducive to and supportive of life. However, the seasonal changes and weather shifts are likely to be far more extreme than here at home.
Sci-News.com are reporting that, with a score of 0.81, it falls in to the top three on the Earth Similarity Index, which we definitely knew was a thing before today, so long as there are no follow up questions about it.
Don't pack your bags just yet though, as, if we calculate that we could travel there at the speed of the New Horizons Space Probe (around 35,800 mph, and one of the fastest travelling objects ever made) then it would take just 299,744 years to get there. You'd want to make a long mix-tape for that trip. Also we're really bad at Maths so if someone wants to correct that, feel free.
Via The Verge. Main pic via astrobob.areavoices.com
