View of artist from the planetary system L 98-59: astronomers confirmed the existence of a temperate exoplanet, L 98-59 F, located in the habitable area at only 35 light years from the earth. © M. Kornmesser / ESO
Thanks to precision instruments and data gleaned for several years, an international team piloted from Montreal has lifted the veil on a fifth celestial body in the L 98-59 system. And not just any: a temperate planet, bathed in a flow of energy comparable to that which the earth receives from the sun. In other words, a place where water could, in theory, remain liquid.
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A fifth planet detected in the living area, only 35 light years old
It is a star that could almost be missed while looking at the sky. L 98-59, a small red dwarf lurking at 35 light years, is not exuberant. However, she has just delivered a large secret: a fifth planet, this time in her habitable area. A world that could resemble, at least partially, to our land.
L 98-59 F receives approximately 90 % of the irradiation that the earth receives from the sun. It is therefore comfortably in the living area.
Since 2019, this star has intrigued astronomers. Three planets had been identified by the Tess satellite, a fourth confirmed thanks to the Espresso spectrograph. And here is now the 98-59 F, a non-transfeiting planet whose existence was revealed by the so-called radial speed method. She does not pass her star, but betrays her presence by making her shudder.
Above all, this temperate planet receives about as much energy from its star as we of the sun. Not too hot, not too cold: the Goldilocks Zone, as the Anglo-Saxons say. What sharpen the ambitions of the James Webb space telescope, which could attack the analysis of its atmosphere, provided that it has one.
With a mass of 2.8 times that of the earth and a stable orbit of 23 days, L 98-59 F becomes an ideal target for atmospheric characterization.
“It’s a major discovery”underlines Charles Cadieux, researcher at the Research Institute on Exoplanets (IREX). “It reinforces the idea that the red dwarfs, despite their small size, can host fascinating, and potentially habitable worlds.”
Behind this advance, goldsmith’s work: the team has exploited old data with latest generation analysis tools. An elegant way to prove that the most exciting discoveries can sleep in the databases, while waiting for the right magnifying glass.
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